The Time Traveling Guardian
by Sphinx-Keeper
Summary: During the time of Duel Academy with Jaden Yuki still attending, the once dead Dartz has come back and with his strange new power is time traveling across different timelines and taking different spirits with him, including the Supreme King. The only one who can possibly stop him is a mysterious 'Guardian of the Pharoah' who came from the past. Written with a friend. OC story. R/R
1. Chapter 1: Dartz Returns

A young girl with long purple hair tied to a braid sat on a bench in thought. She had recently been accepted into Duel Academy and everything seemed to be going right, though she still refused to interact with others. She didn't want to hurt anyone ever again like before and was too scared to get close to anyone. Suddenly she heard a voice coming from near the forest that sounded vaguely familiar. It couldn't be, could it? She thought he had disappeared along with the Seal years ago. Maybe he came back and grew older? Hope began to overfill her mind as Rin jumped up and ran towards the source of that voice. She kept running until she slammed right into the back of someone. She slowly backed up as the person turned around, revealing a guy with long spiky black hair wearing a cowboy hat, his one blue eye looking over her curiously. "Howdy, may I help you?" he asked, his accent just like the boy she was wishing it would be.

Ashamed at herself and embarrassed about the run in she decided to pretend to look angry. "No, I thought you were someone else but he doesn't dress in cowboy get-up." she huffed, creating a mask to hide her embarrassment. She then turned around and began to stomp off when she heard footsteps following her. "Hey wait, I remind you of someone? Must've been my voice, looking for an Australian are we?" he asked, following her as she walked back out towards the school. She didn't answer as they continued on and stopped a second when she realized he was still following her. "Why are you following me?" she growled, turning back to look at him. He was quite handsome, tall, his outback look almost reminded her of him.

"I was just curious about your mistake. Maybe if you know an Australian I might know you. What's your name?" he asked, stopping as she did. She paused and looked at him then quickly turned back around. She felt stupid and not happy with how she was acting, but she couldn't let him get close. "Rin. Rin Marion." she said not looking at him as she crossed her arms and continued on, heading towards the Obelisk girl's dorms. "Rin, what a pretty name. The name's Jim Cook, it's a pleasure to meet you." he said as he once again continued to follow her. She started to approach the dorms and became annoyed. Why wouldn't he just leave her be? She gave him a name! "Hey, you know boys aren't allowed on the girl's dorms." she huffed which caused him to stop and look at her. He had such an innocent look, such a kind look. It killed her inside, so she ran without another word, ran up the steps and into her room.

"What a strange gal. Though she was kind of cute, eh Shirley?" Jim said with a laugh to the large green crocodile that was strapped to his back that blinked her big yellow eyes. Rin sat in her room on a small white bench sill, her window and blind open as she curled her knees towards her chest. What was with her? Why did she act that way towards him, she never came off angry and unfriendly to anyone else. She decided to try and forget him and started looking through her deck to get her mind off things. She came across Barrel Dragon, her favorite card, a card that her friend from long ago gave her. "Valon..." she said and thought of him, then suddenly her thoughts jumped to the Australian she had recently met. She quickly stuffed Barrel Dragon back in her deck and stuffed her deck to the side with a huff.

"Things were better in the good old days, weren't they, Rin?" A voice echoed in Rin's mind. It was a man's voice, a familiar, cold, cruel, tempting voice. "You were happier, no? With Valon, your sweet Valon..." Rin's eyes shot wide open and she froze in her spot. Her body shivered a little at the voice. Where was it coming from? "Where are you? I thought you were destroyed!" she yelled out, jumping from her seat and standing in the middle of her room.

"Dear Rin, is that any way to talk to an old friend?" the voice continued, echoing in her ears, her very core.

The sunset eyed girl became frozen in place by fear at the words. Then her expression became bitter and upset. "I'm not your friend." she growled back, "What is it you want with me?"

"Tsk, tsk, Rin, it's not about what I want..." he replied in a sweet voice. Despite the lack of a physical presence, a hand rested on her shoulder, as if to comfort her. "It's about what you want. Acceptance, forgiveness, a clean slate... and more importantly, Valon. You make it so difficult for yourself, Rin, hiding in a school where no will accept you, no one will forgive you, or help you clean the red off your slate... And Valon has abandoned you..."

This calmed Rin as her body loosened up and she listened to his words. Small tears appeared in her eyes. It was true, all true. But what could he do to help? Or for that matter, why did he care all of a sudden? "What does it matter? It was your fault that all happened to me in the first place!" she cried out, pushing back the hand. But what if he could help? What if he had a change of heart? Those thoughts ran through the girl's mind as she slumped down on her knees on the floor.

"My fault? Are you sure about that? I gave you a home, a purpose, a destiny, but you threw it away. You put yourself into this mess, Rin. But, I am not a heartless man," He whispered in her ear, holding her shoulders. "Deep down, in your heart and mind, if you were given the choice to go back and redo things, you would not change a single thing... You would do it all again. Have Valon's affections, the power... A life where you were once feared and respected." He stood up, letting her go. "What I offer to you, dear Rin, is no different than before..." A card appeared out of thin air, floating before her, the aqua glow inciting her to the promise of hope, the promise of Valon. "I offer you to come back home."

Rin thought about this hard. When she lived with Valon and the others everything was well. Though she vaguely remembered what she had done under the possession of the Orichalcos, she remembered how bad it was, but how good it felt at the same time. Seeing the card in front of her and hearing Dartz' offer made her heart fill with joy. A chance to be with Valon again, a home to return to. She took the card, not hearing the Australian voice calling out for her with concern of the fact she had been yelling at no one, outside her window.

The card glowed brighter at her touch, but something was different from Rin's memory. The card's glow turned black, and the lines of the seal morphed into a similar design, but there was now an Egyptian eye in the center of the unholy circle. The darkness surrounded her, engulfing her in its power, and the familiar numbness took over. She felt nothing. No regrets, no shame. She only felt power, stronger than before, and the longing for her one and only friend.

Dartz smiled behind her, his appearance the same except for two curial differences. One of his eyes now glowed gold instead of amber, and there was a dark shadow surrounding him. He smiled at Rin's decision, the old Rin's return. "Welcome home, Rin," Dartz smiled.

Everything went black. She had disappeared from her room, much to Jim's shock as he watched from down below, and reappeared at Dartz' side, just as before. Nothing mattered anymore, just the want to stay by Dartz side and see Valon again. Rin was in darkness once again.

Dartz smiled at her. "Come, Rin, we have more work to do..." Leading her by the shoulder, they walked through a portal of darkness that opened behind them. "There's so much work to be done before you can see Valon again..." As she left with Dartz, an emotionless expression on her face, a memory flashed in her mind but fizzled away.

It showed Rin and Valon hanging on the roof top of a building, looking down upon Battle City. "So you say you want a new deck? How about machines? A tough lass like you deserves a deck that matches with who she is. I even know the perfect card." Valon said as he and Rin sat on top of another building together. He handed her a card with a dragon with three guns for heads. "Barrel Dragon, that card with a bit of luck will destroy anything that stands in your way." he said. She looked at him in question. "Do I really match with machines?" she said softly. "Sure, but not entirely. You're a pretty nice lass on the inside but on the outside you're as tough as steel. You're like a... Mechanical Angel see?" he replied with a smile.

Speaking of angels, Dartz thought, there was the queen of the fallen angels he must 'persuade' next. In a world where darkness ruled over the lands, a castle stood. In the castle's throne room lit barely by torches, was a young woman sitting on the throne in a distressed matter. It wasn't too long ago that the ruler of the castle, the Supreme King, had disappeared thanks to some outsiders. The thought made the girl furious. How dare they come and take the King? The King who she loved and would do anything for, even kill those that defied them. She tried to stop them but they managed to beat her.

In her heart she wanted revenge on the girl she was born from, a girl thrown into darkness but taken back into the light, the one who she believed destroyed her King, and find a way to bring him back to her once again so they may rule over everything and crush all that would oppose them.

As Dartz entered the ruined remains, he silently commanded Rin to stay outside the castle. He walked into the empty halls, his footsteps echoing through the ruins with fierce foreboding. Once in the entrance of the throne room, he looked on the despaired Queen. This was going to be so easy, it was almost laughable. But orders are orders...

As the Queen sat in thought her head shot up at the sound of footsteps. Her fierce golden eyes looked at the strange man approaching her and she immediately stood up from her chair. "Who are you?" she shouted, not liking some stranger appearing in her King's castle. In case of danger, a dark duel disk appeared on her arm, ready to summon minions at her command.

"Just a humble man with a proposition to the Queen of ruins..." Dartz replied, smiling. "There will be no need for that." He pointed at her duel disk. "You wouldn't stand a chance anyways, my Queen."

The Queen raised an eyebrow at him as the duel disk disappeared from her arm. "A proposition? What is it you have to offer? If it involves bringing my King back I will do anything." she said, her eyes flashing with rage at the thought of his disappearance but also with sadness.

Dartz smiled. "In a sense, what I am about to propose can bring him back, and your empire stronger than ever before." The young Queen walked towards him, arms crossed over her chest, her eyes flashing with interest. "Really now? You have my interest. What do you propose?" she asked, a smirk appearing on her lips.

"What I propose is a partnership," Dartz smirked. "You join with me, outside of boundaries of this realm, and your empire will flourish beyond space and time itself." Dartz knew the offer would interest her, but the promise was going to reel her in immediately. "I have the power to resurrect your King from his host. Once he sees what you've done for his empire, he can't help but love you for all eternity. You, and you alone."

The Queen's eyes widened at his idea. Her empire would flourish, she could take possible revenge on her light self, and the King would love her. The one thing she always wanted in the world was for the King to love her as she loved him. She grinned. "You have a deal." she said, sticking her gloved hand out for him to shake. Dartz took her hand and as they shook hands, magic transferred from him to the Supreme Queen, and for the first time in a long while, she was not just a spirit. She was now human, but with all of her powers, and something more now... She was not a force to be reckoned with.

The Queen's smile grew more wicked at the feeling of all this power, and the fact she was whole again. "Let us see that light side of mine take me on now." she chuckled darkly.

"Oh, that reminds me, there is one more we must collect, but first..." Dartz smiled. "We must collect your King."

The Queen smirked. "How will we do that?" she asked, excited to see her beloved King again.

"His essence is still within his host," Dartz explained, as hen started walking out of the throne room. "Unlike you, it'll take a little while longer to draw him out. But not impossible... Lets go pay a visit to one Jaden Yuki."

A girl with shoulder length brunette hair with two star clips on the side sat outside on the grass surrounded by friends, including a boy with bushy brown hair who she secretly liked but no one knew. In her arms was her duel spirit Happy Lover, who squealed at all the food in front of them. It was a picnic, and Jaden was already pigging out on all the food while his friends laughed. Miyuki was the girl's name, and she had slowly become friends with this group after all they had been through. She did her best to stay calm around Jaden, though a small blush was threatening to creep all over her face.

Sitting beside Miyuki was a girl with brunette hair tied to a spiky ponytail wearing a white tank top and jeans, her midnight blue eyes glancing at Miyuki who shifted with shyness as Jaden leaned close to her to take a pork filled bun. Chuckling she whispered to Miyuki, "Isn't this fun?" causing the younger girl to blush. Christina had her own secret she had kept; she was secretly working under Kaiba to disguise herself as a student to see how the school was doing in secret. She didn't realize part of her job would become to protect it as she had with all the events involving the Supreme Queen.

The sky started to darken, which was peculiar given that the day was predicted to be sunny and perfect weather. In the distance, Jim was running towards the picnic location, calling for Christina. She looked up to see Jim calling at the whole group, but mostly waving at her. She raised a brow and stood up as he got closer. Jim panted for breath for a second before he spoke. "Christina, glad to find you. It's about a girl I met named Rin, I remember you talking about her once. Strange girl ran into me, thinking I was someone, and then ran off. I go after her and the next thing I know I hear her shouting at someone in her room, and then she disappeared. I mean like a magic trick, poof into thin air!" he explained, everybody now looking and listening to him.

Christina stared back, her thoughts in worry. Rin, she knew Rin was back, but to disappear? She had a feeling what it might be, but she swore it disappeared years ago. "Listen, stay here, I'm going to call someone really quick who may know what to do." she said and before Jim could object she ran off, pulling her cellphone out of her pocket. She speed dialed the number and waited for an answer. "Kaiba, sir, it's me Christina. We have a problem. It's Rin, the girl who was involved in the Orichalcos long ago. I have a feeling, it has come back." While Jim explained to Christina what had happened, Shirley, the crocodile on his back, was growling and snapping nervously. Something was about to happen. Something big.

"Are you certain, Christina?" Seto questioned, the connection less than felt and heard the crocodile on his back snapping and growling. "Wow now Shirley, what's got you all worked up?" he asked. Miyuki felt nervous as well as Happy Lover grew concerned. What was going to happen? And was it connected to Rin's disappearance?

Christina took a deep breath. It was just an assumption, but if it involved Rin, it had to involve the Orichalcos. She explained to him what Jim had told her, how Rin and suddenly vanished into thin air from her room after shouting at someone. She suddenly felt a chill crawl up her spine, something bad was going to happen, she could feel it.

"Ok I'll- to help- be- Oh God-!" Seto's voice was nervous and garbled, and then the call dropped. Meanwhile, the weather intensified, growing darker and darker, green lightening shooting off in the distance. "Seto? Seto?" Christina panicked as the call dropped on her and heard a scream, Miyuki's scream, coming from the group. She quickly put the phone in her pocket and ran for them, stopping only a moment when she saw the lightning in the sky. Miyuki was crowded with Jaden and his friends, staring at the sudden storm, shaken and scared. What was going on?

Footsteps came from behind Christina, one very angry Queen not wanting to be stopped by this foolish friend again. "Rin, take care of the man, will you," Dartz ordered quietly to Rin.

Christina quickly turned around to see someone she wasn't expecting to see at all. Fiery gold eyes glared at her as the young female walked towards her. "Well well well, if it isn't the Angel's protector." she smirked at the other girl. Christina glared back. "What are you doing here? I thought you vanished along with the Supreme King." she replied back. The girl giggled darkly. "We never completely vanished, just ask the boy who was possessed by my King." she answered, her smirk becoming a tad psychotic in facing her enemy once again.

Jaden had stepped in front of the group as Rin suddenly appeared from the shadows in front of them, her eyes blank and her face expressionless. Jim was in shock. "Rin, Rin is that you? What happened?" he asked, shaking. Jaden glared at the girl as she stepped closer to them. Without a word she activated her duel disk and played Orichalcos, locking Jaden and herself inside the field.

Dartz smiled to see everything was going swimmingly. He'll let the queen have her revenge on the protector, and Rin would easily incapacitate Jim and bring Jaden over with out a hitch-

Suddenly, a sword landed between Christina and the Queen, grabbing everyone's attention. The sword's handle was made of gold and the Egyptian eye was on the hilt, connecting the silver blade to the handle. Dartz froze. 'No, no, SHE shouldn't be here, it's not possible-!'

"Hey, psycho girl with the gold eyes!" an unfamiliar voice called out from a treetop. The new girl had short mess hair, blowing in the wind, ocean blue green eyes and strange markings glowing on her. Her cloths did not look to be from this time. "How about picking a fight with a someone else?" Christina gasped as well as the Queen when the sword suddenly came between them. The two of them looked up to the voice, Christina becoming confused as she had never seen this girl before, the Queen becoming frustrated at this new appearance that stopped her from fighting Christina. "Who are you?" The dark queen asked with a snarl.

Meanwhile Jaden became worried about the strange seal that surrounded him, bringing out his duel disk anyway as of course, he couldn't resist a duel. The others watched with anticipation and anxiety. Jim on the other hand ran over to where Rin was. "Rin, can you hear me? Rin!" He said and tried to reach out for her but was shocked and sent back by the shield. The duel started.

The girl jumped down from the tree, landing perfectly on her feet. She walked over towards the Queen, markings of strange items glowing on her skin. She stopped as her eyes landed on Dartz. Her smile faded with slight shock and seriousness. "So, you really are back," the girl spoke, looking at Dartz.

"Guardian, how did you come here?!" Dartz demanded, furious. "You should be in the past!"

"Well," the girl continued, her voice changing to a small hint of playfulness. "When you go messing with the space time continuum, it's kinda my job to make sure you don't destroy this reality and create a new one in your twisted, ugly image." She looked around and saw Rin and the Queen. "Well, I see you ditched the motor heads for a harem. Not very professional if you ask me." Despite her outward joking, she was very worried. She knew Dartz was different, but not certain how dangerous he is now. There were innocent bystanders too.

Rin had Jaden tied up, her favorite card, Barrel Dragon, on the field. A tear came to her possessed eyes at the sight of the card Valon had given her. This duel was made so if Jaden lost, he would be ok as she was aiming of taking the soul of the Supreme King that rested inside him in order to bring the King back. The Queen looked not amused by the new girl's comments, Christina on the other hand was both amused and curious about this girl. Guardian? So she was a Guardian, but of what? The Queen didn't like this at all and looked to Darts, curious by the fact he seemed to know her. "Who is this girl? Shall I take care of her?" She asked, her voice angry, her eyes glaring menacingly. Dartz smiled at the girl. "Be my guest, your highness. Kick this lowly peasant back into her place."

The girl pulled a card out of her deck and summoned. It was a little girl surrounded by stars and magic. "Elstrella," the girl whispered to her. "Protect the kids by the duel over there. Try to break the seal if you can to save the duelist." "Yes, my lady," the little angel answered, and she flew over to the group. The girl turned her attentions to the Queen. "Come at me, girl," she smirked.

Elstrella, the angel of the stars, flew over to Miyuki and the others. she casted a protective seal around them and then focused her attentions on the oricalcous seal. She started using all of her attacks to break the seal, to save both duelists inside.

The attacks worked against the seal though it took some time. Luckily Jaden being the duelist that he is was able to keep himself safe that whole time. The blast from the seal shattering sent everyone around it backwards and on their backs. Rin was an exception as she stumbled a bit and fell unconscious. Jaden stumbled back, only to be caught by Alexis and the others as Jim and Christina (since the Queen was now focused on the new girl) ran to Rin's side.

The Queen smirked and a wild look came to her eyes. "I show you not to mess with our plans!" she growled and came charging at the girl, gold claws extended, her anger making her forget about the sword. Despite this, shadows developed around her body and claws and as she struck out, they would as well.

The girl jumped out of the way and grabbed her sword. As the Queen charged again, her nails met the blade, sparks flying off at contact. "Do you even know what his plans are, your 'Highness'?" she asked, her left eye glowing with the millennium eye, attempting to read the queen's mind.

While everyone else was distracted, no one seemed to notice Dartz waltzing by everyone, heading straight to the group. Once he arrived, he pulled out one of the orichalcos cards and put it to Jesse's back. The knight was just as important as the King and Queen. It glowed; it was too late for anyone to stop him. At the clash and the question the Queen glared at the girl. "What does it matter, so long as I can be with my King again." she said, spinning around to strike again.

Miyuki, who had been looking after Jaden with the others, suddenly saw Dartz go over to Jesse and put something on him. She realized what it was and cried out "Jesse!" and ran over to him, but it was too late. The blue haired boy collapsed in her arms, unconscious by Dartz's magic.

The girl looked over to see the commotion over by the tree. In a last ditch effort, she threw a punch at the Queen's face and landed a solid one on her jaw. She started to run over to Dartz.

Estrella started throwing attacks at the man, but he dodged with ease. Dartz reappeared behind Rin and Jim, and he used magic to put Jim to sleep. He picked up Rin and vanished.

The Queen was knocked back, a bruise appearing on her feet. She coughed and glared but then saw Dartz vanish. "Tch, looks like we have what we came for." She said with a grin as she slowly stood up. "Hear me girl, we will come back and when we do I'll make you pay." she hissed and disappeared into the darkness. Miyuki, who had been helping the others the whole time, caught a glimpse of the Queen and her eyes widened. "Her, she's back. That must mean the King is.." she muttered, shaking. Christina put her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Yes, it seems our worst nightmares are back." She said, looking sad.

She stood up and walked over to the new girl. "Thanks for helping us. He may have gotten away, but at least no one got hurt. Rin though.." she said and looked away, frustrated she was useless in the matter then turned to the girl and put on her best smile, "We will get her back, I know it. Tell me though, just who are you? I have never seen you before."

The girl sighed seeing that Dartz got away, taking a deep breath, the strange markings vanished. "I was too late," she whispered under her breath. She then looked up to Christina. "There would be a very good reason why we have never encountered before." "Hold on a second," Syrus spoke up, taking a good look at the strange American. "I know you! You're Isabel Corazon, the American champion!" Sryus and some of the others looked at her in shock. "But you look so young!"

Isabel giggled shyly, blushing a little. "Wow, I didn't realize I was well known in the future..."

Christina's eyes widened at Syrus's exclamation. "American champion?" she said in wonder and went into thought about it. Miyuki raised a brow, Happy Lover who had been hiding the whole time of the incident, coming out and plopping her arms. "What do you mean in the future? Where did you even come from?" she asked, tilting her head. Happy Lover upon seeing Estella the spirit, starting squealing and leapt back out of Miyuki's arms and over to the spirit.

"Wait, Happy Lover!" she said and then her eyes widened even more at the other spirit. "Another spirit! But this one I have never seen before." she said, curiosity taking her as she slowly approached the new spirit. Isabel stopped blushing. "It's complicated. I'm from the past; more specifically, from Yugi Mutou's time." Isabel walled over to Estrella and Miyuki.

Estrella, who looked to be the age of a seven year old girl, was crying. "I'm so sorry, madam... *sniff* I- I failed you. I-I let Dartz hurt one of these children. *sob* I'm so sorry!" The small spirit his get face in her hands, crying even harder. "No, Estrella, you did wonderful, it was not your fault," Isabel comforted kindly, raising the spirit's head up. "I don't blame you for anything that happened." The spirit started to smile. "Thank you, my lady, truly I have a kind master." She glowed and vanished, returning to her card. "No, Estrella, I ask the one who is blessed with great friends."

Isabel turned back to the group, her expression more stern than before. "The universe is in danger. The man you saw earlier is named Dartz, and he's just attacked Yugi Mutou in the past and had unleashed an army of monsters from a dimension called the shadow realm. And before you ask, Yugi is okay, but a past of his soul was stolen by Dartz, and he may not last long if I don't track him down and stop him. I don't know what he's doing jumping around the time stream, but if he's not stopped, this time line may change for the worst."

The others had been lost with the fact this girl was not only an American Champion but also could time travel and communicate with spirits. Not only that but everyone could see the spirit she had been talking to before it disappeared. They shook off the shock as she explained everything. Christina was the first to speak. "I will help in any way I can. I know the girl he kidnapped and possessed."

Miyuki who waved goodbye to Estella, turned to Isabel. She was happy that she met yet another person who could see spirits and love them as much as she did. She also was shocked by the fact she could time travel. She looked over to see Jaden and Jesse still unconscious. "I want to help too, but thing is, how will we do it? And how did you time travel here anyway?" she asked, wide eyed about the whole situation.

"It wasn't easy," Isabel began to explain, kneeling next to Jaden. "I had to break taboo with my magic. I technically shouldn't be here, but Dartz put my friend in danger, and I am destined to protect him. So magic to come here, following the trail of magic left behind." Isabel put a hand on Jaden's forehead, her right arm starting to glow in the shape of an ankh. She sensed that Jaden's soul was still intact, however, there was something implanted in him, something evil...

'This isn't good... The orichalcous magic has mutated into something worst... And yet...' Isabel thought to herself, her face narrowed in concern.

Christina now raised a brow. "What's wrong?" she asked, looking concerned as she saw the girl looking at Jaden. This made Miyuki want to help more. "What should we do?" the young girl asked in her sweet voice, Happy Lover's expression turning concerned at her owner's own expression. Isabel's eyes suddenly widen in shock. "GET BACK FROM THESE TWO NOW!" Isabel shouted at the group. Suddenly, both Jaden and Jesse started screaming, bodies tensed up in pain. Their eyes shot opened, eyes as black as the darkness.

Miyuki jumped back as well as Jim and the others who had been taking care of Jaden. Christina's eyes widened in fear as she began to back away. "What's-What's wrong with them?" Miyuki cried out, scared and worried for her friends. Happy Lover had disappeared in fright at the scene as Jaden's group backed up scared and worried.

Isabel started glowing with strange makings, items that resembled the millennium items. She put her hands on their heads, trying to stop the poison from spreading and taking over them. They fought, grabbing her arms and trying to tear them away from their heads. Slowly, they calmed down and went back to sleep. As Isabel removed her hands, the millennium eye remained on their foreheads. Christina's eyes widened. The Millennium items, she had seen them before and heard about them from Kaiba. And this girl glowed with them. Just what kind of power did this girl hold?

Everyone calmed down once Jaden and Jesse calmed down, but were shocked about the markings just as much as Christina was. "You, just what kind of magic powers do you have?" the girl asked, her mouth gaping. Isabel gasped for breath, then spoke when she had enough. "Ancient... Magic... I was born with these markings... I'm destined to protect the spirit of a king from danger before a certain time... That's why I've come here, because Dartz has endangered him..."

Christina's eyes widened even further. "Wow.." was all she could muster before thinking on what else to ask. Miyuki was shocked as well. "So, we need to stop Dartz before everything is "Can someone help them?" Isabel asked, trying to pick up Jaden. "We need to take these two somewhere where they can rest and someone can keep an eye on them. Dartz has implanted some evil essence into their souls, and they would have turned into monsters. I put a seal on them to slow the process, but I don't know how long it'll last..." Jaden's friends nodded that they would help and Jim and Hasselberry picked up Jaden and Jesse. Christina watched on and said, "We can take them to the infirmary and have everyone keep an eye on them. I however want to join you in your quest on stopping Dartz.." she paused a moment before continuing, "I have dealt with him before and I know the girl he took. I want to help free her from his grasp."

Miyuki's face turned determined. "I want to help to, I know the Supreme Queen personally, after all, she used to be me." she said, looking down at the ground until Happy Lover appeared again and landed on her head and gave a squeal. This made Miyuki smile. "Looks like my spirit wants to go on an adventure too." she chuckled, blushing a bit at her spirits silliness. Jim nodded and smiled, "I agree, don't worry, we will keep an eye on things here. Who knows what kind of monsters will attack the school." he said and everyone nodded in agreement.

Isabel hesitated before speaking next. "Thank you, you'll need to stand together... There should be monsters coming here soon to turn people into more of them, like your friends there..." She then turned to Christina and Miyuki. Isabel looked at the determination in their eyes: it was unwavering. Even in Miyuki, who was scared, was strong. Isabel smiled at both of them. "I would like that if you did help me. It was dangerous of me to enter head first against foes I haven't faced before." Then a thought occurred to her. "I'm sorry, I never once asked for any of your names!"

Christina smiled as the group introduced themselves, said they would take care of things, and left. Now it was just her, Miyuki, and Liz. She chuckled a bit at the girl. "It's no big deal. You came in the middle of a battle." she said and grinned, "My name is Christina Terrwyn. Pleasure to meet you." Miyuki smiled as Happy Lover jumped from her head into her arms. "My name is Miyuki Tenshi, and this is my spirit Happy Lover." she said with a big grin as Happy Lover squealed.

Isabel smiled at the little spirit. "Hello there. I'm sorry if I scared you earlier."

Happy Lover squealed with glee and flew over on its four golden angelic wings and landed right on top of the girl's head and gave another squeal. Miyuki's eyes widened at the spirit and rushed over. "Happy Lover, don't do that!" the girl cried out, a little embarrassed by her spirit's rather playful behavior. The moment the spirit touched her head, it became whole and visible to everyone. Isabel looked up to the Happy Lover. "Well, this is different..." She giggled.

Christina's eyes grew to the size of golf balls. There was Miyuki's spirit, whole and visible to even her. Miyuki saw her look and also went wide-eyed. "You...You can see her now?" she asked. Christina nodded silently. This made Miyuki smile. "See, I told you I wasn't crazy." she chuckled. Happy Lover flew back to its owner and gave another squeal. "Seems you have a way with spirits like I do. I can make them whole by touch but they were still not visible. That's awesome you can make them visible. Now I can show Happy Lover to everyone!" Miyuki smiled.

"I think it's a side effect of my powers," Isabel replied. She turned to Christina. "Christina, you said you dealt with Dartz before?" Christina gulped. She had yet to tell her secret to Miyuki, but figured now was the time to do so. "Yes, you see, I was there when the incident happened years ago." she said and Miyuki looked at her funny. "If you were there, that means you are-" "Yes, I'm older than all the students here. See, I'm not actually a student. I work under Seto Kaiba as an assistant. I disguised myself as a student so I may keep an eye on the school and make sure things were going well. I do enjoy being a student though, unfortunately I'm just a little too old to join." she chuckled and Miyuki's eyes widened.

"See long ago I met Kaiba during Battle City and helped him on his quest to stop the Orichalcos incident. Because of my great help, he hired me as his assistant and years later I was sent here on a job. Who knew the job would involve protecting the school and the world?" she smiled as Miyuki stood gaping at her in shock. "Yes, it was a hard time for everyone involved," Isabel replied. "So, what did you do to help Seto?"

"That girl you saw, the one possessed by Dartz. I was involved in trying to track her down and stop her. I helped stop anyone who had been possessed by the Orichalcos that were not part of the main group. It wasn't easy, the city is big, and so I couldn't find Rin until the Orichalcos finally broke. I ran into her as she was trying to leave the city. She looked like she was in so much pain. I couldn't believe she came here to Duel Academy. Must have been to try and make her life normal again." she said, her voice sad as well as the expression on her face. And then it turned to anger. "And now it is back again, and Dartz has taken her again. I can't let her slip away again after all the pain it caused her last time." she said, clenching her fists.

"Wait, did you say that girl was Rin?" Isabel questioned, eyes widened. "Yes. From what I've heard she became friends with Valon and met Dartz through him. She trusted them, not knowing what the Orichalcos was capable of, and became possessed by it and defeated many duelists, stealing their souls." she replied. "I remember. I was one of her opponents, and almost one of the Orichalcos' victims..." Isabel replied, frowning at the memory.

Christina went wide-eyed. "You were there? I'm... I'm sorry." she said, lowering her head. "In any case we need to rescue her and stop whatever Dartz is planning from happening." Miyuki said, staying upbeat to try and cheer Christina up. "Dartz won't be easy to beat a second time. It took me and Yugi a long time to defeat him," Isabel explained. "But now he's back and with new powers than before." Isabel turned to Miyuki. "Who is the supreme queen?" Miyuki shifted a bit. "She is a spirit, born when the Supreme King captured me and poured his own darkness into me. She was a part of me but somehow she got split. I.. I had no way to control her as she ruled with the King. Her deck is a dark version of my angel deck, her powers in darkness, and her personality every way is opposite of my own." she explained, Happy Lover looking up at her friend with curiosity.

"I see..." Isabel replied. "Well, that would explain the copious amount of fan girl psycho I saw while trying to read her mind... And I thought Yugi's fan girls were bad..." Christina chuckled at this. "You have no idea.. That girl will tear anyone apart who touches her King. The King was born from darkness that possessed young Jaden, that boy that Rin almost dueled before your spirit managed to break them free from the seal. I have a feeling the King was who they were after, probably to keep the Queen on Dartz' side. Now Jesse.. He probably went after the evil spirit that once inhabited Jesse thanks to the same spirit that caused Jaden to fall into darkness." she added to Miyuki's explanation. "I understand..." Isabel replied.

Meanwhile, in another area of time and space, the king's card was placed on a ritual table. Darkness immediately started pouring into the card, the supreme king's power growing and growing at every minute. The Queen meanwhile was fuming over the girl who had punched her in the face. She looked over to Dartz out of the corner of her eye, the other eye focused on the ritual. "Just who was that girl? You seemed to know who she was." she asked, her voice in calm anger as she knew the King would soon return.

Dartz's eyes narrowed. "Her name is Isabel Corazon, guardian of a pharaoh from thousands of years ago... She and her king defeated me a long time ago... But I have had my revenge..." He looked over to another card, a man's face trapped behind the seal, placed on a statue for keeping. Dartz frowned. "I have no idea how she followed me to that time, but I'm sure she's had some help. She will be bothersome, but nothing we can't handle."

The Queen grinned. "Good. I will help you annihilate her as best as I can." she chuckled darkly. She turned full forward to the ritual. "When will he be complete?" she asked, crossing her arms, her face holding a look of longing. "He will be finished in a few hours," Dartz replied. "For now, we have one more place we need to visit..." He looked to Rin. "Are you ready, my dear?"

Rin had been standing completely still nearby Darts, her eyes in a blank state. "Yes Lord Dartz." She said in a trance, her voice like her own but emotionless.

Dartz smiled. "Then let's go." He walked before the Queen and Rin, and a black portal opened before them. "I should warn you before entering that this time is dramatically different than what you are use to." He then walked through. The Queen and Rin followed without a word, the Queen thinking it didn't matter what the world looked like in the time line they were going to, her and her King would rule of it all.

Dartz led his minions into a bright future, skies clear and motorcycles everywhere. His attire changed from robes to a suit to fit the setting. Not too far from their location was a giant arena, cheering and yelling for the fields taking place echoed loudly. "Girls, how do you feel like watching the evolution of dueling before meeting our next guest?" Rin simply nodded no thoughts or emotions going through her thanks to the Orichalcos power. The Queen didn't look too interested but knew knowing how this world worked was key to taking it over. "Very well, I am curious about this rather bright world you have brought us into." She said, not liking how cheerful the world seemed to be.

Suddenly, a card from Isabel's deck started to glow brightly. She pulled it out and took a look at it. "Looks like Dartz is on the move again..." she said aloud. Isabel looked up to Christina and Miyuki. "Are you two still determined to come and help me bring down Dartz?" Christina stared at the card for a moment then snapped herself back to Isabel's question. "Yes, I.. I know Rin tried to take you down while under the Orichalcos but I must save her." she responded. Miyuki gulped, wondering what the glowing card was about then nodded, pushing back her fear. "If anyone knows the most about the Supreme Queen it's me. I want to help as much as I can." she looked to Happy Lover who squealed in her arms. "Besides, this time traveling thing sounds kind of fun!" she giggled, looking back to Isabel.

Isabel smiled at these girls. "Alright." She put the card onto her duel disk, revealing it to bear a strange picture of an old style clock with different ones bursting out of it. Once it touched the duel disk, the disk glowed gold, the life point counter suddenly changed from today's date to a date in the distant future. "When everything started going crazy, some duel spirits appeared to me, explaining what was going on and what they knew. It wasn't much, but I figured it would be like that. The Time Wizard spirit gave me this card, saying it would glow when Dartz was going to time hop again." She pressed a button and a golden portal opened before the three girls. "Take my hand so you don't get lost."

Miyuki's and Christina's eyes widened at all this, an amazed look on their faces, their eyes sparkling in wonder. They managed to catch everything Isabel said however, and though it sounded too crazy to be true, the fact the girl even came there to the future was proof enough. Still in a bit of shock they took the girl's hand, one girl on each hand, and held tight, wondering what it was going to feel like to time travel. Isabel pulled them into the gate, once all were through, it closed behind them. It felt like they were floating through space and time itself as it quickly guided them to their destination. Isabel's markings were glowing again, as if protecting her and her two new companions (three if you counted Happy lover), from any harm. The gate opened again, and they landed in an alley way, the three tumbling into trash cans or bags.


	2. Chapter 2: A Visit to Neo-Domino

Miyuki tumbled and landed face first into a pile of trash bags. Christina landed fine on another pile nearby and sighed at the struggling Miyuki and helped her out of the garbage pile. Miyuki shook and dusted herself off before looking around with wide eyes. "Where...Where are we?" she asked, Christina also looking around with interest. Isabel climbed out of the trash bin. "If the duel disk is correct, we are about 25, 30 years in the future." Isabel jumped out of the bin. She walked out to the entrance of the alley. "I can safely presume we're in Domino."

Christina's eyes widened. "25 to 30 years in the future!?" she said, looking around at the city. It had definitely changed a lot throughout the years much to the girl's surprise. She would be an old woman by now, probably living somewhere else besides Domino, same went for Miyuki and the others. The girls followed Isabel out of the alleyway and grew even more wide-eyed as they went on. Somewhere in the distance cheering and applauding was heard. "Wonder what that is all about?" Miyuki asked in wonder.

"Probably a tournament, by my guess," Isabel replied, still staring at something at the distance. She was staring distastefully at the Kaiba building, which has transformed over time. "Of course my ex's ego would withstand the trails and sands of time..." She sarcastically commented louder than she intended to. Christina looked to where Isabel was looking at the Kaiba building and heard her say something about an ex and stood in thought and put two and two together. "Wait... What...!?" She said in shock to the girl, "You... You dated my boss?"

Isabel looked to Christina, looking a little calmer. "Yes, but it was a long time ago," Isabel replied. "We started dating after battle city, but broke up shortly after Dartz tried to take over the world." Christina looked at her with sad eyes and in a serious manner said, "I'm sorry for any harm my boss has done to you. I... I know he isn't much of a people person." She said then gave a small smile, "Actually, I'm surprised he even was in a relationship to begin with. He must have really liked you."

Isabel laughed weakly. "Yes, well... He did until he thought he loved someone else..." She said in a lower voice. But she shook her head and turned towards the arena. "Come on, Dartz is probably in the arena looking for his next victim or minion." Christina looked at her puzzled before snapping out of it and agreed on heading towards the arena. Miyuki followed as they headed towards the large arena where a tournament had indeed been taking place.

As the girl's approached the arena where the tournament was taking place, screens on the outside showed a girl with long dusty blonde hair tied to a loose braid and purple eyes driving a sky blue and white motorcycle down what looked like a race track. Miyuki stared as she spotted what looked like a duel disk imbedded in the bike. "My turn! I play Command Knight in attack mode!" she said, her voice holding a slight British accent as a feather armored girl warrior appeared above her bike.

Next to her were two more motorcycles, a bulky green and black one, and a red and black Harley Davidson type one, and two boy riders on them. One of the boys had black hair with green dyed in streaks wearing gothic black cloths and wearing a green and black striped scarf. The other had spiky red hair and wore punk like clothing, a black Chinese dragon tattoo on his face. "We got your back Kristen!" shouted the green and black haired boy to his partner.

Isabel and the girls were watching the duel with awe. Dueling on motorcycles! For Isabel, this combined her love for dueling and the thrill of riding her motorcycle with her cousins.

The duel ended with Kristen's team winning, showing off her favorite monster, Colossal Fighter, James and his Ice Dragon of the Ice Barrier, and Aku and his Dark End Dragon. Kristen took off her pilot goggles and let them sit on her neck as James and Aku took off their visors. Giving each other high fives, they laughed as the crowd cheered them on and the announcer said, "Team Warrior has done it again! Is there anything Kristen Atlas and her team can't do?" The three walked their cycles to a garage nearby and walked out to take a break.

"We did it! Man, did you see that guy's face when Dark End took him out? It was awesome!" said Aku, doing a pumped up pose, fire in his eyes about the duel. James chuckled. "I don't know, he almost had you there, Aku." he said, and Aku immediately glared at him. "You want to start something emo boy?" he growled. Kristen sighed and with a chuckle and separated the two with a roll in her amethyst eyes. "Alright you two, knock it off." she smiled. As much as Isabel wanted to join the crowd in cheering for the champions, she had to keep an eye out for Dartz.

Elsewhere in the stadium, Dartz walked down to the pit crew area, finding the next duelist ready to go on the track, whether the schedule wanted her or not. "I see you're ready for your big entrance, my dear butterfly," Dartz spoke up to the beautiful duelist. The lavender haired girl gave a grin as she stood in the shadows, her eyes on the arena and the unsuspecting audience. "I'll be sure to put on a great show..." She chuckled darkly, stepping out into the open right when the announcer was about to introduce the next team. Dartz smirked as she stepped out onto the field. He waited to see where this would go, then make his offer.

The audience gasped, unsure who this mysterious girl was who had a symbol of a purple butterfly glowing on her head. "Hello hello. Sorry to ruin your little games but there is a far more important show about to take place." The girl announced, standing in the middle of the arena.

As the lavender haired girl started talking to the audience, Kristen and James were about to go to their break rooms when suddenly a blue marking in the shape of a wing appeared on James arm, glowing rather brightly. It was then the televisions on the outside of the arena were focused on the strange butterfly girl as she announced, "I've come here to tell you all that now is the time for the world to end!" And with that she started to glow, and beasts made from darkness started forming and attacking the stands, sending people into a panic as they rushed outside. James and Kristen looked at the glow with shock then, hearing the screams coming from in the arena, they rushed in to see the monsters before them.

Unlike most normal people, Isabel started running towards the girl instead of away. "Get everyone out safely!" She yelled to Christina and Miyuki. 'Isabel, be careful,' a voice spoke in Isabel's mind. An older woman with long straight brown hair appeared next to her, unseen to almost everyone. 'This girl is not to be underestimated.' "Gotcha, Nanu!" Isabel responded, moving past security and a group of duelist with a "5Ds" logo on their suits. Miyuki nodded and stared wide-eyed as she saw the long haired spirit appear next to Isabel but decided she would ask about it later since getting everyone to safety was first priority. She and Christina ran off to the stands, one going left and one going right.

Before Isabel could reach the butterfly girl, a familiar foe appeared from the massive chaos. Fierce golden eyes struck out from the dust and a scowl was shown on a young girl's face. "Well if it isn't the time traveler.." the Queen growled, not pleased to meet the girl who had given her a bruise on her cheek, but was thirsty for revenge. "Oh, hello psycho, how's the fan fiction going?" Isabel replied. "You know what, your highness, I don't think I properly asked you what do you get out of all this?" Isabel questioned, ready to fight. The Queen glared even more, though she had no idea what fan fictions were. "Look here, we have our last member in the palm of our hands and we're not letting you mess this up. Especially when I'm so close to getting my King back." she said, answering the question in her own way as she didn't care if the girl knew her plan. "As soon as he is back we will begin to rule our world the way we did before. And there is nothing my foolish light self or his light self can do about it." she continued, a smirk on her face as she came charging once more at the girl.

Meanwhile Kristen and James had entered the arena and went wide-eyed at the site of the monsters that were roaming around and making a mess of things. Kristen spotted two girls helping everyone evacuate and another girl getting into a fight with a strange dark girl. Unsure what to do, she stood and watched, ready to help when needed. Isabel looked around at the monsters, some starting towards the stands. She pulled out her cards and summoned most of them. "Protect the people," Isabel told them. As they flew off, she turned her sights on the queen. "All for a man? I think you need your head reexamined."

The girl's eyes sparked in anger. "He is no ordinary man. He is the Supreme King and he is the ruler of this world and the world of ruins! And I am his Queen, forever by his side." as she said this she struck out with her claws in a swipe, darkness enveloping them as her anger grew. "So if this supreme king loves you like you claim he does, then let me all you this: why are you going out of your way to impress him?" Isabel questioned, trying to look into her mind. But looking into the queen's mind was like trying to look through dark fog with a lightning storm going, only flashes of truth and fantasies tinting through. "Because if he loves you like he claims, then you shouldn't have to impress him to love you." The Queen had no answer for this one, as it made her think a bit on it. But as they would say, love was blind, and her obsessive love for the King knew no bounds. It was what she was born to do, to serve the King forever no matter what. Born from the darkness poured into the sweet angel's heart, taking her small crush on a certain red coat wearing boy and turning it to the extreme.

She once was a part of that girl, was just a spirit inhabiting her body. But now she was separate, and soon her King would be as well unlike before. All she wanted was to stay with him, and she would take down anyone who stood in her way. "I will serve him no matter what." she hissed and darkness surrounded her entirely, blanketing her out to the point where only her glowing eyes could be seen, and with a snap the shadows lashed out at Isabel. Isabel narrowly dodged the first attack, but definitely got hit the second time, her right arm sliced with a deep wound. 'Isabel, let me take over-' Nanu called out. 'No, I got this!' Isabel replied. Her left arm started to glow gold as she spun away from the queen's attack. But while spinning, something seemed to be coming it of her arm. When she stood before the engaged written, a sword was in the guardian's right hand, and she blocked the darkness.

The darkness bounced from the sword and hit the Queen in the chest, knocking her over. She growled and slowly tried to get up when out of nowhere the butterfly girl from before appeared in front of her. "Let me take care of this." She said, sticking her arm out to block the Supreme Queen. She then noticed that the girl didn't have the markings she was looking for, but gave off a very powerful vibe. This made her smile. "Hmm, interesting. You are not the one I am after, but your power.." she turned a duel disk that was on her arm, "I would like to see what it is like."

Before Isabel could respond, Dartz stepped between them. "That'll have to wait, my dear," he interrupted. Suddenly, dark clouds surrounded them, and they began to vanish. Isabel tried to follow them, but they disappeared before she had the chance.

Dartz and the three girls reappeared in an office across town from the stadium. He turned to the butterfly signer. "You are daring, my dear, but it would be a shame to show your hand too soon to the enemy." He smiled. "Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Dartz." The butterfly looked the man over and noticed the Queen who was busy tending to her wounds and Rin who was standing against a wall, her eyes in a blank state. She brushed her hair back before speaking. "Well, I have never seen you before. You definitely are not a dark signer. My name is Lucrecia. What is it you wish to speak to me about?" She asked in a polite manner, crossing her arms as she looked at him with strange colored eyes. Dartz smiled. "To help fulfill you're declaration back at the stadium... To end the world."

Isabel looked around; the stadium was free of the monsters and all of the audience seemed to evacuate safely. She could see Miyuki and Christina heading down to her. 'Well, this is bad...'Isabel thought. 'Isabel, are you alright?' Nanu asked. 'I'll be okay. But locating Dartz and his harem is more important than my arm. Time to use the ring's power to find them.' Isabel's stomach started to glow in the shape of the millennium ring when suddenly, a girl with blonde hair pulled back in a braid that laid on her shoulder walked towards her and pulled Isabel on the shoulder. "Sorry to bug you, but what in the world is going on?" She asked, James right behind her, his glowing arm dimming down at the disappearance of the dark signer.

Christina and Miyuki ran over after everything had disappeared and looked at Kristen and James with curiosity. Christina spoke first after hearing Kristen's remark. "It.. it's a little hard to explain." She said slowly, giving a nervous smile as she knew this was obviously going to sound crazy to a stranger. "We traveled here from the past to chase after an evil man who has captured and possessed a friend of mine, resurrected an evil spirit that was born from the darkness of this girl's heart," with that she pointed to Miyuki who looked just as lost as the blonde girl in front of them started to look, "and apparently he took on yet another female who we haven't seen before who seems to have come from tour time period."

This all made Kristen even more confused than she already was as she looked to Isabel. "Just who are you people?" She exclaimed, letting go of Liz's shoulder and just standing wide eyed along with James. Isabel shrugged sheepishly. "I'm Isabel Corazon," she started. "Everything my friend here said is true. They're from 30 years from the past, I'm from even further from the past. That man is collecting followers to assist him with a mission to end the world." While talking to Kristen, her eyes locked on James, more specifically, his arm. She suddenly walked past Kristen to James. "May I see your arm?"

James, who had been quiet for some time, suddenly blinked in awareness when the girl asked for his arm. "S-sure." he said, looking confused. Meanwhile Kristen was standing in shock from the explanation as she slowly turned to Isabel and James.

When she touched James' arm, his signer marking started glowing brighter. Isabel's markings glowed as well, both markings reacting to each other. "Interesting..." Isabel whispered, her left eye glowing brighter than the rest, observing his magic more intently. James was frozen in shock at this at first but tried to calm down in order to think it through exactly what this symbol meant. "To be honest, I have no idea what it is or where it came from. All I know is-" he said when out of the blue Aku came stumbling towards them looking kind of tired and bumped into James before standing in the middle of the group.

"Yo, what did I miss? Man, this place is deserted and.. Wait is your arm glowing? And that chick.. she's glowing too!?" he exclaimed when the sign on his cheek starting glowing, it's symbol a blue dragon claw. "What.. What is going on?" he shouted, freaked out by everything. Kristen sighed and gave him a playful bap on the head. "Magic, that's what." she said, finally gaining her composure though she still had a ton of questions to ask, which now was the time to do so. "Er, Isabel. I am still finding it hard to believe that you guys time traveled from the past, but seeing those monsters and your markings, maybe I can believe. If James is involved in this, I want to help. Oh, and I should probably introduce myself." she gave a grin as she went to stand by James.

"My name is Kristen Atlas. This is my friend James with the weird mark on his arm, and that one-" she pointed to Aku who was rubbing his head, a small blush on face at his embarrassing reaction in front of cute girls, "is Aku." Isabel stopped glowing when Aku entered. "Hey," she smiled sweetly. "Sorry about that, Kristen, I noticed James markings and how similar it was to that woman from earlier. Your marking... It's pure. Pure in the sense of it's good, it's good magic, unlike that girl from earlier, who's essence was twisted and corrupted. I'm sorry, how rude of me to go all crazy examiner." Isabel let go of James. "I'm just surprise on how different the magic us here, different destiny and all. I'm so use to the magic Yugi and I typically deal with-" Isabel stopped when she noticed the strange looks she was receiving from everyone.

Kristen fell back into shock. The talk of magic, forever she lived a pretty normal life. And then this happened. She had no idea about the Signers and that her own brother was one, but at the moment that wasn't important. She laughed it off, after all that was the best she could do and looked to the others. "Alright so who are you guys?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips, her goggles swinging gently on her neck. Miyuki grinned as Happy Lover came out and sat in her arms. "My name is Miyuki Tenshi, I come from the past where there is a school that teaches people how to Duel. And this is my duel spirit, Happy Lover." she said. "Oh, as for dueling I fight with angels and the card Sanctuary in the sky!" she added, a twinkling coming to her eyes at the thought of the card.

If the time traveling and magic wasn't enough to fry Kristen's brain, this just added to her list of things that she once thought were impossible. "You have an Angel deck too?" Isabel questioned happily. Miyuki blinked. "You mean.. You duel with one too?" she asked, tilting her head as Happy Lover squealed playfully. This made Christina grin. "Her deck wasn't completed until a certain someone gave her the card Sanctuary in the sky." she grinned, wrapping her arm around her friend who immediately blushed and shouted out, "Christina!" Isabel chuckled a little bit, but then winched in pain was she grabbed her wounded arm. It was still bleeding pretty badly.

It was then the others noticed the wound. Christina gasped and looked to Kristen. "Kristen, do you know where some first aid is?" She asked. Kristen nodded but before she could speak about where it was Miyuki suddenly said, "Wait! I can handle it!" Everyone looked at her confused and she grinned. "Happy lover here knows how to cure wounds. She's healed cuts on me before." She said like it was a normal every day thing. Happy Lover flew over to the arm and its wings started to glow and gold sparkles came out over the wound. The blood stopped and the cut sealed completely. Happy Lover gave a happy squeal as it flew back into Miyuki's arms. Everyone who was watching, mostly Kristen, James, and Aku, were shocked.

Isabel smiled. "Thank you very much, Happy Lover, Miyuki," Isabel thanked. She then turned to the confused group of friends. "Seeing magic first hand is always a shocker. I was the same way when I first experienced magic for myself." Miyuki grinned at the compliment as Christina's face turned to thought. "Now that I think about it, we just traveled with you to the future but we.. We don't really know you that well. Who exactly are you anyway? We know you were the champion of America way back when, and you mentioned knowing Yugi." She said, her arms crossed and her brow raised in curiosity, an interested look on her face.

Isabel sweat dropped in embarrassment. "Oops, sorry. I didn't want to lose track of Dartz that I really didn't properly introduce myself-" Isabel suddenly looked nervous. "And we can't lose track of him now! He's hidden somewhere in the city, we need to find him or he'll cause more damage." Isabel closed her eyes and resumed her search for Dartz. Her stomach glowed once again, only one of the needless was pointing this time. She looked up to a tall building that rivaled that of Kaiba corp. "If my magic is right, then he should be in that building." Isabel pointed out the building in question.

Christina at first was confused why the girl didn't explain herself but shrugged it off when she mentioned Dartz. It was true, now was not the time to get cozy and chat. Kristen saw where she was pointing and looked to James. "We may not know who you all are or what entirely is going on, but whatever it is sounds dangerous. We will help you get out as much as we can." She said and James nodded. He looked to his arm in wonder. "Especially if I'm involved, I want to help prevent any disaster that may come our way." He added. Aku stared at the both of them. "What about me? I have the weird symbol too!" Aku protested, "Plus I can hang with all the cute girls-I mean help out everyone."

"I won't stop anyone who wants to help, but just be warned that you're going to be putting yourself in a lot of danger. I'm not forcing anyone to come if they don't want to." Isabel warned. "Well, who's ready to go stop Dartz at the... Um..." Isabel squinted her eyes to try to read the name of the building. "What is that building?" Kristen squinted as well at the building Liz was pointing to. "I can't tell from here, but if that is where he is, we can take you there." she said. She turned to Aku who was giving her sad puppy eyes which made her sigh. "Aku, we need someone to stay here and keep an eye on things. If you see my brother tell him something big is going on and I'm leaving with James to investigate. I promise we'll be back soon." she said. Aku grinned. "No problem, leave things to me. You guys don't do anything crazy ok?" he chuckled.

Kristen and James turned to the others. "Wait here for a second while we grab our D-Wheels." she said and the two ran off towards the garage. Miyuki looked to Christina. "What's a D-Wheel?" she asked with a tilt of her head when suddenly they heard a loud revving sound and two bikes, a sky blue and white and a black and green one, drive up to them, Kristen on the white one, James on the back. Kristen smiled at them through her tan pilot goggles. "Hop on, we can take two people each."

Miyuki with much shyness hopped on with James while Christina hopped on with Kristen. "Man, fancy motorcycles, this world is pretty cool." she said. Kristen laughed. "Oh, they are no ordinary motorcycles." she said and popped out her duel disk to show. "In this world, we duel on these. Everybody in Neo Domino has one." she explained. Christina blinked. "Neo..Domino?" she stuttered, "Where I come from, it was just Domino City."

"With the turn of time comes changes," Isabel commented add she joined Miyuki and James. "Unless I'm mistaken, your guy's school is on Pegasus' old private island. I only went there once for a party." Isabel looked at the bikes with awe. "Man, Marik would flip is he saw this," she commented. Christina head shot to the girl's direction. "Did.. Did you say Marik?" she asked after Kristen and James blinked at the comment about the Academy. Neither of them have been there yet but they knew about it. Before Christina could get her answer, Kristen and James turned on their motorcycles and took off towards the buildings. Miyuki gave a yelp of fright as she had never rode on a motorcycle before and clutched onto James who blushed and coughed at being grabbed rather hard around the stomach. Christina held on to Kristen who was grinning, the feel of the wind and speed a feeling she had always loved.

Isabel smiled at Miyuki. "Don't worry, if you feel like you're going to fall, you won't. I'll catch you." Isabel smiled at the rush, the speed of the bike. She loved going riding with Marik, it was something they shared since becoming a family. It helped him cope with the regrets of battle city, the regrets in Egypt. But it helped that his siblings were supporting him every step of the way. Isabel then began to wonder if he was somehow still alive in this timeline. Was he a grandparent or a great grandparent? But those thoughts had to be put on hold to ensure there would still be a future to look forward to. She looked down to scared little Miyuki. "So, that card you mentioned earlier, did Jaden give it to you?"

Hearing Jaden's name immediately made the girl stop burying her head in James back side. Her face turned a dark red before she could stop it. But how did the girl know his name? Then again she was there when the villains took the Supreme King from his soul. "Y-Yeah...How did you know?" she asked shyly, turning her head to Liz as James was busy driving. Isabel pointed to her left eye. "One of my markings allows me to read peoples mind. It likes to randomly flash me images from other people's minds without my control. And I saw the boy in the red jacket you introduced me to back in your timeline. You have a crush on him, don't you?" Isabel smiled sweetly to her.

Miyuki's face lit up in a blush again and her eyes widened. "I..I.." she stuttered. Despite her shyness, she knew she could trust the girl, besides, she didn't come from her time period. "Yeah.. I like him." she admitted with a small smile. After all, she became Supreme Queen trying to save him, if that didn't mean anything she didn't know what did. The thought of how she became Supreme Queen made the girl's smile fade a bit. Isabel noticed her smile fade. "What's the matter?"

Miyuki sighed. "It's just, the Supreme Queen, the one who most likely caused that gash on your arm. She was born from me being foolish enough to try and free Jaden from the Supreme King, an evil that inhabited his body a long time ago." she said, her heart sad and in fear that now the Queen was on the lose again, and the King would be back as well, "I was captured and he poured the same darkness that was in Jaden's body into mine and the Supreme Queen was born. She tried to hurt my friends, and I was helpless to save them or Jaden."

Isabel squeezed her shoulder. 'This poor girl...' Isabel thought. "Miyuki, dear, you can't blame yourself for that. If you did, you would never truly heal. I've seen what regret can do to a soul, and it can destroy like wild fire. Yes, sometimes our good intentions don't work out as we hope, but you can't let it cripple you from helping others. Trust me when I say this: the Supreme Queen may have been born in you, but she did not define you." Miyuki began to smile again. "You're right. It's no use beating myself up for that. And this time.. This time we'll take her down once and for all." she grinned back, "Besides, I have my friends beside me to help me." "That's the spirit," Isabel encouraged. "Now, back to the subject of Jaden: does he know how you feel for him?"

Miyuki's face went back to red. If she wasn't holding on for dear life onto James, she would have poked her fingers together. "I.. I haven't. It's just, I'm kind of shy around him, not to mention the school will laugh if they see an Obelisk and a Slifer together. Slifers are considered slackers while Obelisks are the highest rank and Ra is in the middle. I'm an Obelisk, Jaden is a Slifer." she explained, deciding to keep her crazy plan of telling everyone she was in love with a teacher to hide the fact she liked Jaden, a secret.

Isabel sighed, chuckling too. "Leave it to Seto to build a school for dueling and have class division at the same time..." Isabel muttered frustratingly. She looked to Miyuki. "Listen very carefully to me: tell him how you feel." "I.. I kind of want to, but...but.." the thought of telling Jaden how she felt and the possibility he may like her back sent the girl's mind in a fluster, her face was entirely red, eyes in swirls. "Calm yourself, Miyuki," Isabel patted her head. "If you don't tell him how you feel, it may be too late. After all, life is too short: if you don't tell him, or even try to, you may never will. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks. Just do it. You may find out it was for the best."

Miyuki slowly calmed down and gave a smile. "Y-Yeah.. Maybe I should." she said, "Thanks for listening to me and giving me advice. You're a nice person." With this she gave a big grin as the building they were looking for began to pull into view. Meanwhile on Kristen's end, Christina was asking all sorts of questions. "So, this is what future Domino looks like eh? Pretty nifty." she said as she looked around then went back to Kristen. "I wonder if everyone I knew in Battle City is still alive. Man, it's probably been years." the brunette chuckled as Kristen pulled over to the building along with James. They stepped off along with Christina and Miyuki and when they saw the name of the building, their eyes went wide. "Oh no, I don't think we can go in there, at least not easily." Kristen said, sliding her goggles off her face and letting them hang around her neck.

Isabel, getting off the bike, looked up at the building. "What's the problem?" she questioned.

The two looked at her, then remembered the others mentioning she was from America and by the look of things not of Japanese descent. "It's.. It's a police building." Kristen said and everyone stared up at it in awe. "I bet the police might have evacuated already, or are trying to stop the ones inside, but I don't think we can just go busting in there." she explained.

"Oooh..." Isabel replied. "Sorry, I have a little trouble reading Japanese sometimes. I can speak it just fine, but reading it is a different story..." Isabel looked through some of the windows. It was all peaceful... "I don't think anyone is aware that intruders are in the building. It's all... Business as usual. Well, let's go." Isabel stated to walk forward, but Kristen grabbed her arm. "Wait, are you crazy? We can't just bust in there and tell them there are three magical psychopaths in their building, they would never believe us!" she said, and looked around. What if they snuck in? Though if they caused a ruckus and were caught they would never be able to explain, especially if the villains left before them. What do to.. "We need a plan." said James as if reading Kristen's thoughts, "All of us should find a way in without causing too much of a ruckus."

Kristen looked to James with concern. "But James, if they catch you and see your mark..." James hesitated. "I know, but things are different now. Satellite and Neo Domino are together again, it shouldn't make a difference if I was an escapee or not." he replied, looking down at the ground in thought. Kristen smiled at him softly. "I'll cover for you no matter what. After all I'm Jack Atlas' sister, remember? There is no way they would question me if I told them to let you go." she replied with a grin. James smiled back weakly. Isabel looked at James and Kristen, and it didn't take rocket science for her to put two and two together. "Well, there's more than one way around a situation. I have an idea, but none of you are going to like it. All of you hide in that alley way," Isabel pointed. As they hid, she walked into the police station.

The group started talking amongst each other as they hid in the alleyway. "What do you think she is doing?" Whispered Kristen. "Hopefully something not reckless though from the time we have been with this girl..." Christina said with a chuckle. "Who is Jack Atlas anyway?" Miyuki asked with curiosity. "My older brother and former champion of Turbo Dueling. He is well known throughout all these parts. I.. I didn't really enjoy the fame he did and for a while pretended I wasn't his sister to gain a name for myself. But I was being silly." She looked to James who smiled at her, "I learned I should just be myself and not care who I am related to and the fame that comes with it."

Suddenly, ringing started through the whole building, and police officers started evacuating the building quickly. "What the hell happened?!" A big, tall officer with guide eyebrows questioned.

"The fire alarm went off, officer Trudge, sir!" A smaller officer replied. The doors began to start sealing themselves. Happy lover stated nudging the group towards the entrance.

"Huh, guess that works. Alright let's go!" Exclaimed Christina and the whole group looked out for any police officers and rushed inside. They went looking for Isabel and upon finding her Kristen said with a grin, "Nice job." Isabel, who was standing by the stair case, was smirking. "Good news: I got the officers out. But news, Dartz and his harem are now going to be expecting us. Don't worry, we can handle them." She started walking up the stairs. "Now, let's go stop some bad guys."

The group grinned and followed her up the stairs, ready to duel, fight, or whatever they had to do to stop the bad guys from destroying their time lines. Christina got up front near Isabel. "So, what's the plan? We have three baddies and Rin up there waiting for us. For all we know it could be a trap." She said, her face serious and determined. "I know for myself, I want to free Rin first. The Supreme Queen and the new girl can be dealt with later but Rin, she is like a hostage right now." "I'm aware of that..." Isabel replied. "Rin has been completely consumed by Dartz's new magic, which has bothered me from the beginning..."

Christina nodded in agreement. She had to admit she thought of it too, that Dartz power was different than before; being able to revive the Queen's spirit, taking the spirits from Jaden and Jesse, and time traveling. She knew the Orichalcos did not have that kind of power. "Now that I think about it, you mentioned seeing Rin before, in Domino city. I was there, looking for Rin myself on Kaiba's orders. I find it strange I didn't run into you. Then again the city is rather big." She said with a sweatdrop.

"During that time, I was in the States with Yugi and our friends. Seto was on his way over when Rin and I dueled. I don't know how she made her way over, but Dartz sent her over with a purpose. She and I dueled and I lost, but I didn't lose my soul. Someone else paid that price for me..." Isabel looked sad for a moment. "Five months."

Christina looked at her with a raised brow. "Five months? What do you mean someone paid the price for you?" She asked, her eyes a bit wide. "Seto and I dated for five months. Well, if you count the whole orichalcos fiasco, more like seven. I know you wanted to ask about me when your boss and I dated."

Christina's eyes went even wider. "So, you were dating him while I was working for him? He never mentioned you.. Then again he doesn't really tell me anything about his personal life." She said with a sweatdrop. And now they were exs? Of course Seto wouldn't have mentioned it to her later. "Sorry for any heart break he might have caused you, he can be a little...cold at times." The girl said with an even bigger sweatdrop, "You must have warmed his heart somehow though for him to want to date you."

"It was nice for a while. However... I was blind to one big blaring problem. He was only dating to me get to someone else. I didn't find this out until after I lost my duel with Rin."

Christina looked sad. "I'm.. I'm so sorry." She gave a sigh. "It took me until the end of the Orichalcos incident to find Rin. By then it was too late. Yes, everyone was saved and came back. But that girl, she had the look of total horror when I found her. She told me she never could forgive herself for the hurt she caused and ran away before I could stop her. I'm glad she came to Duel Academy in Miyuki's time to try and live her life right but it seems she still felt that regret. And now Dartz has her again. To think I would fail to save her twice." At first Christina was angry then she calmed down again, "I know though that no one was expecting Dartz to come back the way he did. There was no way I could have known he would show up and take Rin again."

"I thought he was dead, but this isn't the same Dartz. That magic flowing through his veins now... Has magic that's from the source as mine." Isabel's eyes narrowed at finally putting her fears into words. "That'll make him harder to defeat. But one thing bothers me: how did he come back and is this all just to revive Atlantis and his demonic pet again?" Christina listened to her words and began wondering the same thing. "To gain allies from different time periods, all who are evil in blood, it doesn't seem like the same old plan. No, he wouldn't have come back for that. Not to mention I doubt he alone has the power to revive himself and others. Someone else has to be pulling the strings. Question is who?" She said while scratching her chin. "On the note of stopping him, I'm sure we will find a way. You may be the only one with magical powers but we will help in any way we can."

Isabel smiled. "I never doubted you guys for a minute. After all, we're gonna be okay."

Christina smiled back then stopped a moment as she felt like she heard someone say that to her before. "Odd, I have this feeling someone said those exact words to me before, in battle city." she said and went to thought, thinking hard on who she might have seen that would of said that.

"Well, you know what they say, it's a smal-" Isabel stopped mid-sentence as they were turning the corner of the 6th floor. Isabel quickly pushed Christina out of the way as a metal blade came for them. A robotic angel floated above the group, and two more flights up was Rin. The angel moved to strike again, but Isabel pulled her sword out and started to fend it off. "Go ahead, I'll catch up!" Isabel shouted back to the group.

Christina stared up at Rin, seeing the girl in a blank state and nodded and looked to the others who were frightened a bit. "Come on, let's go!" She said and everybody rushed past, Miyuki looking back in worry to Isabel. They rushed past Rin, looking for the other enemies.

Isabel pushed the angel off herself and pulled out a card from her deck. "Aquios, I summon thee!" Water poured out of the card like a river and reformed in the shape of a woman.

"I will handle this, my lady," the card replied. "Go and stop this darkness from polluting the timeline any further!"

"Thanks, Aquios," Isabel smiled, catching up to the others. Once everyone was together again and out of the danger, Christina began looking around. Realizing they had no idea where the others were and her thoughts drifting on seeing Rin, she got an idea. "Why don't we split up to look for the others. I'm going back for Rin, I'm sure the Queen and Dartz and the new girl are close by." she said and took off back to Rin. She had to stop her, to save her somehow. James looked to Kristen. "We will go searching for the butterfly woman. I'm sure my sign will lead the way." he said, his mark softly glowing as the girl was indeed close. Miyuki, a bit nervous from it all, said quietly "Leave the Queen to me."

Isabel ran up the stairs to find Rin waiting for her. "Rin!" The American called out to her.

When Christina heard Isabel cry out Rin's name, she immediately turned around and ran for her.

Rin turned towards Isabel slowly, her eyes still in a blank state. Then her expression turned to serious and she put her hand over her duel disk. "Barrel Dragon, I summon you!" she said and the green symbol of the Orichalcos appeared underneath her, but she also had black clouds surround her. A giant two headed dragon with two machine guns strapped to its back appeared and gave a ferocious roar. A tear slid down Rin's cheek from the sight of her favorite card, the card he had given her, but this didn't stop her from making it go after Isabel, its machine guns lit ablaze. "Oh snap." Isabel whispered. She jumped out of the way, as the two bullets shot passed her. Isabel used her sword to dodge more attacks came at her. "Rin, listen to me! You don't have to do this! You don't have to obey Dartz!" Rin started to falter but the spell put on her was very powerful. For those who could see magic, there was an aura around her that was a mix of green and black. Barrel Dragon continued its assault, staying near Rin to protect her from any harm.

Christina had run the wrong direction. "Of course I wouldn't know where to go in this police building." she muttered to herself when gunshots suddenly shot out from the walls beside her. Eyes wide she ran again towards the gun shots, a small smile on her face. "Haven't felt this pumped up in a long time. Don't worry Rin, I'll save you!" Isabel got up and her weapon transformed from a sword into a scythe. This dragon needed to go down before she could get to Rin. "Rin, please, I'm trying to help you," she whispered. She then charged forward to the two of them. Christina stepped in right when she saw Isabel charging. Worried the girl was going to kill Rin, she ran and jumped in front of her. "No, don't!" she shouted.

Startled by the scythe and the sudden appearance of Christina, the Barrel Dragon disappeared and Rin suddenly took off. Christina stood panting, arms outstretched. "Please, I can't let you kill her!" she said, eyes wide at the thought. She caught a glimpse of Rin running off and cursed about it in her head but knew it was for the best. Isabel stopped and stared at Christina. "What did you do that for?!" Isabel questioned frustrated. Christina stared back. "I... I'm sorry. I remembered you mentioning you were attacked and almost had your soul taken by her. I.. I thought you were acting out of revenge for what she did. I had to protect her." she explained, looking worried for Isabel and for Rin.

Isabel looked mortified. "No, I wasn't going to hurt her; I was trying to get to her so I could save her. That dragon was in the way and I had to take it down to get the chance to talk to get and tell her I forgive her." Christina looked at her in amazement then gave a smile. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't of charged recklessly like that without knowing you were such a forgiving person. Come on, let's go after her, she couldn't have gone far in this building." She said and walked a bit towards where Rin was heading, "Nice scythe by the way." She added with a bigger grin. Isabel smiled, spinning the scythe in her hand. "Thanks. Nice thing about transforming weapons. Come on, let's go find her before she does more damage."

Miyuki had been wandering in a totally different part of the building when she suddenly stopped with wide eyes to see the Queen stumbling through the hall. The Queen's golden eyes set upon the angel and immediately lowered in a glare. Miyuki at first gulped but stepped forward, knowing she had to face the Queen sooner or later. "So, if it isn't the little angel." the Queen grumbled. Obviously she was more irritated then usual, though Miyuki could almost see, concern? This confused the girl as she took more steps towards her evil half. "What are you guys planning? Why are you time traveling everywhere?" she said, holding on to Happy Lover who was glaring at the Queen.

The Queen suddenly smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she shouted and charged at the girl and threw a punch. Happy Lover disappeared and Miyuki quickly blocked it. Suddenly she felt an odd sensation and appearing in her mind was a vision of the Queen talking to Dartz. The Queen had the same odd sensation and in her mind was a visual of Isabel time traveling using a card. Miyuki saw Dartz towering over the queen, anger storming his unnatural eyes. "What were you thinking back there?" Dartz demanded. "You almost killed the guardian!" The Queen at first was unshaken. "So what, she is a threat that must be eliminated." she said in her own tone of anger and also ignorance as the girl had no idea what he was so angry about.

"Stupid woman!" Dartz yelled. His raised voice shook everyone in the room. "You could have ruined everything we are working for. You cannot kill the Guardian, for if you do, her most dangerous power will be unleashed! She can seal away and destroy evil in her death." The Queen's eyes widened as she fell to the floor from the shock and scooted to a corner. For her to be frightened was definitely surprising. "So.. So how do we stop her?" she managed to say, her voice shaking. "Carefully, my queen, for she could destroy any chance of reviving your beloved King. Now," Dartz continued, picking up the Queen. "Do as I say and I will make sure your empire expands. If you don't, I can take all you powers away." As he spoke, the Queen could feel her powers being drained from her.

The Queen became more frightened than ever. To lose her King would be the end of everything she had fought for. She gave a shiver and a scream at the power being drained from her and slowly turned to him, eyes half lowered. "I'll do whatever you ask." she said, her voice low and in understanding the consequence if she didn't obey. He smiled as and he returned the power given to her. Lucrecia smirked, intrigued with the man's power. She looked at the scene with her arms crossed, a smile at her face at the immense power that she could feel coming from Dartz. "Alright, you have me there. I will join this team of yours with the promise you will help me end this world." she said with a smirk. Dartz smiled at her. "A wise decision, my dear. Now, here's what we'll-" suddenly, the fire alarm went off, interrupting the vision.

James and Kristen were searching high and low together to find the Dark Signer when suddenly the fire alarm went off along with some sprinklers, raining down upon them. Kristen gasped at the cold as well as James when suddenly he spotted something out of the shadows. Purple lines went past his vision as he was suddenly kicked in the stomach and sent backwards. He managed to land on his feet coughing and by accident had touched his duel disk that was on his arm Suddenly icicles sprouted from the ground, missing Kristen but hitting something that was in the shadows. What sounded like a woman crying out in pain was heard as Lucrecia was hit and sent to the ground. James mark was glowing madly as he stared at the icicles with wide eyes. "Never expected this." he said as Kristen stood still in shock at the sudden icicles.

Lucrecia got up slowly and charged for the boy. He touched his deck again and this time sent out large icicles from his hands which rained down on the butterfly. She managed to dodge right in front of Kristen. Seeing the girl she suddenly got an idea. Before Kristen could fight back the Butterfly flew at her and tackled her to the ground, holding her tightly. Her markings glowed bright as she smirked to James. "One more step and I kill the girl." she said with a grin. Isabel started to run up the stairs when she suddenly gasped for breadth like she couldn't breath.

Images flashed through Liz's head, Miyuki fighting the queen and Kristen pinned by Lucrecria. "The others are in danger..." Liz gasped painfully. Christina's eyes widened. She had been sort of shocked by the fire alarm though she knew what had caused it, her hair dripping wet from the sprinklers. "Let's go, we can help them I'm sure of it!" she said and raced on.

Miyuki gave a gasp as the alarm and the sprinklers broke her from her vision. She stared at the Queen who looked just as surprised. Unsure what to do, she ran off, knowing what she had seen from Miyuki needed to be told to Dartz. Miyuki went after her though the sprinklers everywhere made her vision blurry, like being in a rain storm. James was instantly stuck, the thought of losing Kristen leaving his mind in a panic. With the thought of how much he wanted to save her, his markings glowed even stronger and suddenly a single card in his deck glowed, and out of nowhere appeared Brionac, dragon of the Ice Barrier, his Signer dragon. Startled by this, Lucrecia let go of Kristen just enough for the girl to flip over and kick her off and scramble over to James. The dragon floated before the butterfly, giving a roar that was equivalent to a hard blizzard blowing which pushed Lucrecia back.

Isabel started up the stairs as she began to get soaked by the water. "Go help Miyuki, I'll go help James and Kristen. They need our help." She closed her eyes and Estrella appeared by Christina. "Lead her to Miyuki, and protect them!" Estrella nodded and stared to lead Christina to her friend. Isabel resumed composure and headed up the stairs to find James. Christina nodded and ran with Estrella to where Miyuki might be. She found her rather quickly as the girl had been wandering the place, shivering and a confused expression on her face. "What, what happened?" Christina asked, running up to her. Miyuki smiled weakly and looked up to notice the sprinklers had stopped finally. She turned back to Christina. "I ran into the Queen, she tried to hurt me but I blocked it and something strange happened. I... I saw into her mind." she said, her voice sounding very confused about the ordeal.

The older brunette stared with wide eyes, thought about it, then realized something. "Well, you are still connected to her despite the fact she is now a separate being from you. What exactly did you see in her mind?" she asked, crossing her arms and tilting her head in interest. Miyuki began to explain about the vision she saw of the Queen fighting with Dartz, but left out the part why they were fighting. She made up a reason saying it was because the Queen had let them get away, though Christina was only half convinced but decided not to press further. "I don't want them to know what I've discovered, it would worry all of them." she thought, though it was a silly thought as the young girl herself was worried about her new friend from the past.

Meanwhile Kristen and James were facing off against Lucrecia. James dragon was giving off an extreme coldness in the air, making it easy for anyone to find them just by seeing and feeling the cold. Lucrecia who had regained her composure, laughed. "I see you brought your Signer dragon out, but that won't help you. You see, my power is vastly superior to that of you normal Signers." she said and her markings began to glow, her eyes filling with black and some yellow lines. She looked menacing as a giant purple butterfly appeared behind her. With another chuckle, the butterfly began to slowly flap its wings and what looked like sonic purple waves began to appear. A strange sound, like that of computerized bells was heard, and James and Kristen began to feel strange.

"Come here little girl, the one who stole my beloved. Let's see how he feels when his love is taken from him forever." she said, her voice sweet sounding but with a touch of anger. Kristen's eyes turned blank as she slowly started walking towards Lucrecia, James frozen in place by the hypnotism.

Suddenly, a chain wrapped around Lucrecia's arm, and yanked her to the ground, disrupting her hypnotic powers. If it were not for the dark signer's natural toughness, that attack would have probably broken her arm. Walking towards the scene, a tall, longhaired brunette with a beautiful, more mature face stepped before Lucrecia. "I think that's enough of that, don't you think?" Nanu questioned, pulling the mad woman away from Kirsten and James. With the hypnosis broken, Kristen collapsed and fell unconscious but not before an awakened James caught her. The Signer dragon had disappeared when James was put under the spell making the temperature of the area normal again. He looked to Lucrecia with a glare but then turned his attention to the girl who looked familiar but seemed like a totally different person. Lucrecia was surprised by the sudden chain and the appearance of the stranger but kept her cool. This girl had easily broken through her spell that meant she was more powerful than the Signer and the other girl.

"And just who do we have here? The Guardian herself, ah but you don't look or sound much like her." She said with a smile, the butterfly behind her glowing as bright as her marks. Lucrecia may have had her arm in a bind, but the butterfly Dark Signer knew she could still attack easily despite her powers not being effective. "I am Nanu, the guardian before this child," Nanu responded in a stern voice. Her dark blue eyes were piercing, as if she was looking down at your very soul, your very core. Nanu yanked the chain harder. "You have made a great mistake, choosing to side with that man. Should you continue to blindly follow him, you shall pay a great price for your foolishness," Nanu spoke.

Lucrecia fell to her knees from the pull and looked at the woman standing in front of her. Her eyes made her freeze up a bit, but the fact she sensed a great power inside her didn't scare her, in fact it excited her. "I'm not sure who exactly you are, but I only follow that man because he has power, and nothing attracts me more than power." she smiled wickedly. "Since you have power, you interest me. Let's have some fun." she added and suddenly got back on her feet and rushed rather quickly towards Nanu with a swing kick. Nanu dodged with ease and grace. The chain suddenly slipped off Lucrecia's arm and transformed into twin Egyptian daggers. Nanu swung her knife upward, missing the dark singer by inches, or so it first appeared.

Lucrecia was impressed by the woman's smooth movements that were like she was a dancer performing in a show. Seeing the daggers caught her a bit off guard as they materialized from the chain but smirked when the girl missed. "You fight with such grace but that will not help you if you miss your target." she said and went for another higher kick. Nanu blocked her kick worth her forearm, one of the blades turned into a metal arm band. "Did I miss, or did your pride blind you to the cut on your pretty face?" Nanu asked flatly. As she spoke, blood started to trickle down from the cut that appeared under her eye, some strands of hair fell in front of her eyes. Nanu then grand her leg and threw her to the side, slamming her against the wall.

Lucrecia coughed a bit as she was thrown against the wall and wiped the blood off her face. Still she held no temper, but knew she was dealing with someone far more powerful than the Signer boy and the girl. Smiling at the words of the woman about her pride she slowly stood up. "If you think pride is what drives me you are a foolish woman." she said, holding her aching side. She knew she had to retreat or she would certainly meet her end here, but she wouldn't leave without taking a little something. Her eyes wavered to Kristen as James glared at the woman and stood up. The wing mark on his arm glowed brightly as he tried to attack the woman, but she already knew what he was about to do and knocked him back with a swift kick in the ribs and into a wall. Within seconds she grabbed the still unconscious Kristen and ran but not before leaving a cyborg looking psychic monster (Hyper Psychic Blaster) behind who glowed a lavender color and begun firing upon Nanu and James.

Nanu dodged the attack and ran after Lucrecia to save Kristen. She turned her blades into chains again to try to retrieve the future girl, but then a portal appeared and the two were gone. Nanu froze in shock; she was that second too late. James managed to dodge the attack of the monster but out of the corner of his eye saw Lucrecia disappear with Kristen in a portal, Nanu being too late to stop them. He froze in shock, the monster luckily disappearing now that it's master had disappeared successfully. His could feel his heart almost stopping. Christina and Miyuki, who had no success of finding the Queen, found them finally and were about to relay the news when they saw the look on James face and the fact Kristen wasn't around them.


	3. Chapter 3: Isabel Explains Everything

"What...What happened?" Miyuki asked, instantly worried about the situation. "Kristen.. She's gone.. They took her!" James said in a shaking sad tone, but then his face turned to anger. "Bring her back!" he screamed at Nanu with much fury, "If you are so powerful as you say you are you can get her back easily right? We have to get her back before they.. before they.." he trembled, his emotions stuck in a mess of anger and distraught. It was rare for James to get angry, he was usually a carefree guy. But when it came to Kristen, he promised to protect her and yet.. "I'm useless.. I can't use my power correctly let alone understand it. But you.. You can time travel and have all this magical gifts. Save her!" he said, glaring. Because his emotions were taking control, he had yet to question why the girl suddenly looked different, why she acted different in the fight he witnessed. There would be time for that later, at the moment all he cared about what getting Kristen back.

"James, calm down. My host warned you of the danger you two would be putting yourselves in," Nanu replied in an even voice. This probably did not help his anger at all. "I can't follow her from that gate that opened. I can, however, open another portal to follow them. But if you really care for Kristen like you do now, you NEED to calm down. Your anger will make you reckless and put her in even more danger. That's what the woman wants: she wants you riled up so you are more dangerous." James started to calm down. He knew this woman was right, that he would be playing right into the butterfly lady's hands if he acted up. He looked at her with a small smile and said, "You're right, I'm sorry." then laughed. "Look at me, acting like that punk Aku. Alright, you got us this far and I trust you will help us in the end." It was then he finally realized something was different, that this woman sort of looked like Isabel, but older with longer hair.

Not to mention her personality which confused Christina and Miyuki who were still standing there in the same room. "Now that I think about. Who exactly are you? And what happened to Isabel?" he asked, his facial expression turning into a rather comical look of confusion. "We were wondering the same thing." said Christina and Miyuki nodded. Nanu has a small smile appear on her face. "I am Nanu, a "ghost", if you will, residing in Isabel. I bore these markings before my curse was burdened onto her." "A...a ghost!?" Miyuki gasped making Christina chuckle a bit and pat the girl on the head. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can trust her, after all Isabel probably trusts her if she let her reside in her." she said. Christina was sort of used to this sort of thing, from knowing about Yami and Yugi, to the Marik issue. When she heard the word curse, she grew confused and saw Miyuki's face fall to concern. James was shocked at this matter.

For him and Kristen who had lived such normal lives for the most part, this and everything else that had been happening had turned their lives upside down. Taking a deep breath to get rid of the shock, he placed his fingerless gloved hands on his hips. "So, what do we do now?" he asked.

"We follow that woman, to where ever she and that monster Dartz are hiding," Nanu replied, walking to the center of the three. She looked to Miyuki, with concern and confusion. "What is bothering you, dear?" Miyuki, who had been in thought, was startled by the sudden question directed at her. "N-Nothing really. I'm... I'm ready to go find those guys and get Kristen back." she said, giving her best determined face, hoping she could change the topic and they would get going so she wouldn't have to answer. She had a feeling if the others knew what she knew, they would all grow worried and concerned for Isabel just like she was, but didn't want anyone else to worry.

Nanu recognized Miyuki's conflicting feelings, so she decided to drop the subject. "Alright, young one," Nanu replied kindly. "I will not push you into talking if you do not wish to." Nanu turned to face the other two. Miyuki looked to the others. "Actually there is something I want to say. When I ran into my other self, the Supreme Queen, we got into a fight and for some strange reason when we collided, I saw into her mind." she looked to Christina who gave her an encouraging nod to continue, though she was also a bit worried about Miyuki acting strange. "She...She was arguing with Dartz about something. And the butterfly girl afterwards decided to join them, something about he held more power than the ones who gave her power. He is going to help her end the world." she explained. "Oh, he also mentioned if the Queen obeys he will spread her empire through space and time! And bring back the King! And the Queen, she was scared at how angry he was. He...He must be more powerful than we thought if he can scare the queen." she finished explaining.

"How did he scare her?" Nanu questioned. "He said he gave her the power to be whole, he could easily take it away. Take away everything, including the King. I think that is what truly scared her." she said and looked to Christina who nodded. "It is as she says. The Queen is obsessed with the Supreme King, a being formed from the darkness awakened in young Jaden, a Slifer red from Duel Academy. If anyone were to threaten the King, and in a rather convincing way, it renders her useless. When I fought against her long ago, she was defeated because the King was defeated. They are connected to each other." she added to Miyuki's explanation. "I see..." Nanu looked away concerned. "This is worse than we anticipated..." she whispered. James tilted his head in confusion. "I have to ask, since Kristen and I never really had a chance to, but what exactly is going on? How and why did you time travel here, and who is this Dartz you guys are talking about?" he asked. If he was going to help get Kristen back successfully, he needed to know all the details so he could be prepared. Because from what it sounded like, they were dealing with a force unlike any other.

Nanu looked to James. "You are right, you do deserve an explanation. I shall let Isabel take over to explain, since hearing the truth from a 5000 year old ghost would seem most inappropriate." Before anyone could question that statement, The woman closed her eyes and shrunk back to Isabel's size and features. She wobbled for a minute. "Sorry, still getting use to the whole "second spirit inhabiting your soul" thing," Isabel replied. She looked up to the group, reviving strange looks from that statement. "I take it that's not too much of a normality in this time line, is it?" James shook his head, his eyes wide. "No actually, I have to say time traveling, magic, and evil butterfly ladies are definitely something my world isn't used to." he said, Miyuki nodding and Christina giving a small smile.

"Sorry," Isabel blushed." She then looked serious. "It's complicated to explain... In my timeline, with Yugi Mutou and the other duel champions who are legends now, we had to face another evil named Dartz. He can steal souls, make duel monsters real and was planning on summon a terrible monster of myth to destroy everything. We stopped him, and everything was good again. We thought he was dead for good until..." Isabel fell silent, as if contemplating on something. "This next part requires me to show you what happened. It'll also answer all of your questions." Before anyone could inquire the American girl, her neck began to glow in the shape of the Millennium necklace. The light shined so brightly, it blinded everyone.

When it dimmed down, everyone open their eyes to Domino city, about 9 months since the legendary Battle city tournament took place. Walking down the street was a group of familiar faces. Christina's eyes widened. It was like reliving her own memories, except by this time she began working with Kaiba. James was startled by the sudden change of scenery. "How...how did you do that? And is that.. Yugi Muto the king of games?" He asked, his eyes the size of golf balls. Isabel was standing near the group, her marking softly glowing now. While for the three people beside her, this moment was years ago, but for her, it's only been a matter of hours. Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan, Isabel and a tall, blue haired boy who bared a similar resemblance to Seto were walking around the shopping area together, laughing and having fun like normal teenagers do.

"Seriously?" Joey questioned Isabel, laughing so hard that tears were start to form. "Seto ruined you guy's date THAT badly?!" "Ugh, yes, he did," Noah Kaiba mumbled frustratingly, as if trying to erase the memory from his mind. He had a bruise around his nose as well as a medical wrappings. "We're still paying for the damages to the restaurant and employees caught in the fight. I think I'm banned from there for three months...""Still, you gave Seto one hell of a shiner, Noah," Isabel laughed, patting his back. Yugi, who still chuckling, spoke up, "Do you think he'll ever accept that you're dating his step brother?"

"God I hope so," Isabel rolled her eyes. "Still, it was his fault he forced you to break things off with him," Tea responded, not sharing everyone's enjoyment of the bad story.

"Give him a break, Tea, he's still coping with the fact that he has a working human heart," Isabel responded, still giggling. The group started talking about the latest tournament, and how they felt it went when the unexpected happened. It started with a scream and people running as a black portal opened in the middle of the shopping area. "What's that?" Tristan questioned, as the others started moving around to protect Tea and Yugi.

"Is Bakura trying something crazy again?" Noah questioned. Isabel's markings were glowing, but she was wincing as if it were painful. "I-I don't think so-" Isabel managed to explain. "It doesn't feel like his magic-" Suddenly, a huge monster crawled out of the gate. Anyone who was there during Dartz's reign of terror would recognize the creature, one of his monster minions. But it also looked different.

Christina sweat dropped over the conversation about Seto. She felt more and more like she really didn't know her boss well, but now she was sort of thankful for it. Miyuki and James were watching with wide eyes, Miyuki scared of the monster that had come from the portal. Before the monster though Miyuki was happy to see Isabel hanging with all her friends and even seemed to have a boyfriend, then remembered what she heard in the vision. Why, why did Isabel have to be a sacrifice for the greater good? Why couldn't she stay happy with everyone and they could just keep fighting everything together without it ever having to come down to that?

Isabel's arm with the millennium rod marked on it glowed and she pulled a golden sword out, mirroring the one that Miyuki and Christina saw when she first appeared at Duel Academy. She ran forward to fight the monster, as more of them were spilling out of the portal. Joey and Yugi pulled out their cards and began to summon their monsters, thanks to Isabel's millennium ring abilities. The monsters were being wiped out one at a time, when suddenly, another figure appeared behind Yugi and Tea. Tea was silently knocked out by the man and then the man pulled out an Oricalcous card, mutated like the ones seen earlier. All the fighting was abruptly halted when Yugi screamed in agonizing pain, unlike anything heard before. Everyone turned in horror

"No!" screamed Isabel in both panic and terror. She ran as her friend collapsed to stop Dartz, but he opened another portal and disappeared. As she ran to check on Yugi and Tea, the monsters multiplied in numbers, overwhelming the group. "Come on, we gotta get out of here!" Noah yelled to Joey and Tristan. they turned to see Isabel picking up Yugi and trying to pick up Tea. Tristan ran over and grabbed her and they ran to Yugi's home.

The scene changed to Yugi's home and the King of games was going crazy. He was violently hitting and destroying items in his living room, monstrous like features were appearing on his skin and eyes. "Help-!" he screamed in agony and rage. "Someone- Stop- AHH ME!" Joey, Tristan and Noah were all trying to constrain him, but they were seeing very little success. Isabel finally got close enough to put her hand on Yugi's forehead. Her markings glowed for about 5 minutes until his body went limp and he closed his eyes. Isabel moved her hand to find the Egyptian eye in the center of his head. Everyone took a deep breath and put him on the couch.

"Isabel, what the hell was that?" Joey questioned.

Now Christina and Miyuki were interested, as this was something Isabel had yet to tell them. James too was interested as well as trying to process everything that was going on as it all seemed crazy to him. Isabel looked lost, as if she was also trying to figure that very question out too. "I-I..." She tried to formulate the words to describe the problem. "I saw Dartz-"

"What?" Tristan questioned. "That's impossible! You and Yugi destroyed him months ago. He's dead!" "Well obviously something brought him back!" Isabel snapped. the room was quiet. "I don't know how he came back," she continued in a calmer voice, "But while we were fighting off his minions, he attacked Yugi from behind and stole..." Isabel was trembling, remembering the horrified look on Yugi's face and Pharaoh's. "Dartz stole Pharaoh's soul..." Isabel started to cry suddenly, without knowing she even was.

Noah knelt down beside her and hugged her. Joey extended a hand out, helping her to her feet. "Don't worry, Isabel," Joey started. "We'll stop him, like we did last time." "How?" Tristan started. "We don't have the dragon cards to stop him. Hell, we don't even know how he's even alive!" "We'll figure it out..." Noah spoke up. "I may not have been there when you guys faced him the first time, but I'll anyway I possibly can." Before he could continue, suddenly Isabel's cards began to glow softly. She pulled them out and looked at them. "I think we're about to get some answers."

Isabel closed her eyes and the world seemed to fade away. Surrounding her were the spirits of duel monster cards, Dark Magician Girl standing before her, an expression of worry on her face. The young guardian looked up to the spirit. "What is it?" Isabel asked with concern.

"Everyone, in both your works and ours are in grave danger, unlike anything we have ever imagined," the apprentice responded. "Some of the spirits believed they have seen Dartz and his monstrous minions rise again, but that is impossible. His creatures have infested our realm and yours too!" "Yea, my friends and I have fought them, with little success." Isabel looked down. "I can confirm Dartz's resurrection... He stole the Pharaoh's soul."

The spirits gasped and started to panic. Dark Magician Girl raised a hand to silence the crowd. She rested her hands on Isabel's shoulders. "Worry not, young Guardian. We do not blame you for what has happened, for none of us could have suspected this disaster." "But now is not the time to mourn, Guardian," another voice spoke up. DMG and Isabel looked over to Illuminara, Liz's ace monster, and Time Wizard, who have moved forward out of the crowd.

The more Miyuki watched, the more concerned she became. This was shoved away for a while once Illuminara appeared, the young girl stared in awe at how pretty the duel spirit was. Christina was beginning to understand most of everything, though something seemed missing from it, like why Isabel was called the Guardian in the first place. Remembering when she mentioned Yami Yugi being the Pharaoh, she wondered if there was a connection between the two. James was trying his hardest to take all this in, the wonderment and magic blowing his mind away, but from what he had experienced recently it all had to be true. Time Wizard caught his attention as he had a feeling he had to do with the time traveling.

"The villain known as Dartz has fled this timeline, with a small collection of souls, the Pharaoh's among them," Time Wizard spoke up. Many of the spirits began whispering among themselves about this new information, but quickly silenced add he continued. "It appears whatever resurrected him has fused with his old Orichalcos powers, making himself and his powers stronger than ever before. However, Illuminara and I are not sure what this "other power" is, but is not to be underestimated. This new Orichalcos can steal souls without the need for a duel, but it also implants this evil power into it's now empty host. That is why Young Master Yuugi reacted so violently: The new dark power is trying to eliminate his soul to take control of him.

The other victims have already transformed into Dartz's minions and are now out in your timeline to steal more souls and spread themselves like a virus. Guardian Isabel Nanuia Corazon, it is your duty to protect the Pharaoh and Master Yuugi until the time comes for the Pharaoh to reunite with his past. But should Dartz continue time hopping, he shall disrupt the very fabric of reality and destroy everything. You are the only one with the power and ability to set things right."

Isabel nodded in understanding. "Could it be possible Dartz is doing this to resurrect Leviathan and conquer the world again?" she questioned. "It is possible," Illuminara answered. "However he risk destroying himself in the process." "Whatever his plan is, it must be stopped!" Time Wizard continued. "Every realm, timeline, and souls in existence will be wiped away, as if the world was never created." Time Wizard raised his staff and a card materialized before Isabel. "Take this card. This card will allow you to travel through time and space to locate Dartz. It can track him through every known timeline, but for now, he is well hidden from my view. When he appears, it will glow and lead you to him."

"We all wish you success in your mission, Guardian," DMG spoke. Isabel looked at the card then to all the spirits. She took the card. "Don't worry," Isabel started as she began to vanish back to reality. "I won't let you down." She vanished and opened her eyes back in Yuugi's house, her new card face up on her deck in her hands. "So, what did ya learn?" Joey questioned.

"Long story short: Dartz is back, he got an upgrade, he can time travel and now I can too," Isabel answered, showing them the new card she received from the Time Wizard. Joey and Tristan looked at each other with shock.

"So, does that mean he's trying to resurrect Atlantis?" Tristan questioned. "Possibly, he's collecting souls again, and we've already seen his minions," Isabel responded, putting her deck back into her deck holder, and pulled her duel disk out of her bag by the door. She strapped it on her arm. "Hold on, Isabel, where are you going?" Noah questioned her. "I'm going after Dartz," Isabel responded in a voice that was serious. She wasn't the playful, talk back, sweet girl Noah came to know. This was mission mode, unwavering, determined Liz, and she looked ready for the fight ahead. "We're coming with you," Noah said, he reached for his duel disk.

"No, you're not coming," Isabel snapped, stopping him. "Same goes to you too, Joey. You guys need to stay here, in this timeline." "Isabel, you said it yourself," Joey started to argue. "Dartz is more powerful than before and he can time travel! We beat him last time because we worked together! You can't fight him alone-" "I have to, you guys are too important to me to lose," Isabel answered. "Then what better reason for us to come with you is there?" Tristan asked.

"Because you guys need to stay here and protect this timeline," Isabel answered sternly. The boys feel silent. "I don't know what I'm going to find in the future, but the present needs to be protected. If this timeline collapse, then so does the future. Besides," Isabel looked to Yuugi, who was starting to twitch. "You need to help Yuugi fight the thing that is inside him. He needs all of you while I'm gone."

The guys were silent, but they understood that she was right. Joey sighed. "Ok, fine, you got us there," he answered. "But you better come back safe and sound, got it?" Isabel smiled. "You got it." She turned to Noah. "Be safe, love." "Right back at you," he whispered, giving her a kiss. The card began to stepped away from her friends. "When Tea wakes up, tell her what is going on and that I'll be back." They all answered with "yes" or a simple nod. She put the card on the duel disk and the golden portal opened. She walked through.

The vision faded back to the police headquarters, Isabel taking deep breaths after the necklace marking stopped glowing. She looked up to the group. Everyone was staring with wide eyes. Now everything was clear and though it was a lot to take in, they all understood what was basically going on. James looked to her and smiled. "You may have had to go alone then, but you have us now. We'll help you every step of the way." he said, his expression determined and excited for a chance to get back Kristen and show those villains what he was made of. Miyuki and Christina nodded in agreement and smiles. Isabel smiled at them. "You all have courage and fight in you, and I admire that... And I am thankful that you all are willing to help a complete stranger like me... Just know this: we are going blindly into danger, and we will have to fight to the bitter end... For the sake of everything..." She looked at all of them. "I'll ask one last time: are you certain you still want to come with me?"

James face turned to sadness a bit. "They have Kristen, if I wasn't to come for her what kind of friend would I be? I will go." he said in a definite way. Christina chuckled. "To think you are dating my boss' step-brother. This is all crazy to me, but I was there to try and stop Dartz before and I'm going to help stop him again." she smiled, "Besides, I haven't had any excitement since that time with in the Supreme King's universe." Miyuki however was hesitant. She wanted to help and knew it was Isabel's duty to help, but she couldn't help but wish things could be different. Maybe they could stop him without her having to do 'that'. She decided she would do her best to make sure it didn't have to come to that. "I want to help, they have a piece of um, Jaden's soul." she said, her face turning red a bit at saying his name as she looked to the ground then back, "I'll go no matter what!" She gave a cute look of determination, her face still a bit red.

Isabel smiled at them. "With people like you three in the future, I can see that the future will be alright," Isabel responded, grabbing each of their hands, just happy that she wasn't going in alone. She let go and walked to the spot Lucrecia vanished. The card was softly glowing. "I think I can open a portal to wherever Dartz had been hiding. The card is collecting the trace, all I need to do is-" she was interrupted by the sound of footsteps, multiple, in fact. She looked over to the stairwell and saw a large group of the monstrous minions crawling into the hallway. Some were climbing the ceiling and most of them were wearing torn clothes of civilians. However, some were police uniforms. "Stay close to me!" Isabel called to the others, pocketing the card and pulling out her weapon. "Now!"

Miyuki was freaked out by the monsters but clung close to Isabel. Christina did the same as well as James whose eyes went extremely wide at the sight of the creatures. Isabel looked up and somewhere coming through the air vents. She looked around and saw the fire escape. "Follow me to that exit!" She turned to the group. She then grabbed Miyuki's hand and started leading then to their only exit. The monsters started to follow them. The group followed Isabel, Miyuki scared of the creatures chasing after them. Happy Lover appeared and floated near her, giving a squeal of delight from the danger and placing itself in Miyuki's free arm.

Isabel led them safely to the stairs, making sure the three went in before herself. Once all were safe, she pulled out a different card and activating it, a stone fortress blocking the door. "That should buy us some time," she commented. The crawling and clawing started to come closer, both on the other side of the door and above them. "Hurry, run downstairs!" she yelled, moving them along. Everyone ran with them, hearts beating fast at the danger before them. How they would escape no one quite knew, though getting out of the building seemed like the safest plan. "What exactly are those things?" shouted Christina amongst the noise to Isabel, making sure Miyuki and James were still with them.

"Dartz's minions!" Isabel replied. "Their souls have been taken and replaced with darkness, turning people into these things!" The group made it back to the entrance, but stopped. The metal doors were torn to pieces, monsters infesting the police headquarters. Whoever was left of the force was backed into a corner, shooting at the monsters with no success. One of the officers had run out of bullets in her gun and she lacked a backup weapon. She threw the gun aside and pulled out her duel disk. She started summoning monster and sending them out to attack. This seemed to finally have some effect on the minions.

"We can't go this way," Isabel said, pulling the group with her further down the stairs.

As they ran further down the steps, the minion's speeds picked up. Isabel started looking around for another exit and suddenly stopped. A huge grin was on her face. "Guys, this way!" She called, running into a room labeled "Police Cruiser Garage". James' eyes widened at the sign. "Wait, Police Cruiser Garage. Just what are you planning?" he asked, stumbling along as he didn't want to be caught by the minions. Christina and Miyuki were curious too though they had a feeling taking a cruiser may be their only way to escape. Isabel ran inside, still grinning ear to ear, and grabbed to sets of keys out of the desk. She tossed one to James. "We're riding out of here!" she clicked a button and heard the bike beep in response.

It was then James thought he saw Kristen for a moment. The girl was just as adventurous as Kristen was. He remembered the night she talked of just driving her bike forever and ever with him, going wherever they wanted though her brother would most likely disapprove. This made him laugh a bit, how crazy this plan was but that it would help them get her back. The thrill of it all welled up inside him and he found the bike the keys were attached to and hopped on, Christina deciding to ride with him as Miyuki followed Isabel. "Let's ride!" he shouted with a grin and revved up the bike. "Hold on tight, girly," Isabel smiled at Miyuki. She revved the bike loudly, and rode out of the parking spot. The minions started spilling into the room by the handfuls. Isabel looked down at the bike and discovered a duel disk was already installed. She turned to James. "Follow me!" she called back. She started to speed the bike up towards the closed garage door. She could feel Miyuki squeezing tighter in fear. Isabel pulled the card out of her pocket. 3...2...1! Isabel put the card on the duel disk, activating it. The gate opened before them and they rode through.


	4. Chapter 4: A Malicious Plan

Sometime before, in a rip of time and space, a ruined temple that should not exist stands. Surrounding this temple is three different times, past, future and an even distant future, are seen with the stars. In the center of this impossible fortress, Dartz is welcomed by his newest minion, Lucerica, and the Supreme Queen. The lovey butterfly signer carried with her a hostage, perfect for weakening the heroes they will soon face. She was proving to be a better minion than he had ever hoped for. Lucrecia came in with a chuckle, a tied up Kristen who was now in her spell being dragged beside her. "I brought this with me, a little someone the Signer I'm after cares for. This will bring them right into our clutches." she smirked, setting Kristen down beside her as she stood near Dartz. The Queen came in as well, glaring a bit at Lucrecia and her showing off then looked to Dartz with a small smile.

"I as well have something interesting to share. I ran into the little angel and we clashed, only to have something interesting happen. I've seen into her memories, and I've seen how that Guardian travels through time." she explained, hands on her hips as her lips curled evilly at the thought of how they were starting to get the upper hand. Dartz looked to the Queen with shock. "What?" He demanded, his anger rising again. "You looked into your previous host's mind?" The Queen was confused by his anger. "Yes, I'm not sure how it happened, it seems our connection is still strong with each other. I fear she may have seen into my mind as well, but don't worry. I've seen something that will put us at an advantage." she said and explained what she saw in Miyuki's mind, how they had been traveling through time and everyone that was with them. Looking to Kristen she smirked. "Plus we have someone they want back, they are sure to come right for us, thus we can lay a trap." she added.

"That is not the problem!" Dartz shouted. "She looked into your mind, and has probably seen out plans and know of this location!" He stormed away but then stopped. He started to chuckle darkly. "You said that you know how the guardian had been able to follow us? And now they know our location?" An evil smile twisted in his face. The Queen understood the issue but the fact he changed moods so quickly, quite frankly frightened her. "Yes..?" she said, answering slowly and backing up a bit. Dartz walked up to her, still smiling. "Congratulations, my Queen, you've just given us the perfect weapon against the Guardian. We can trap her and immobilize her without killing her. Well done." Dartz started to walk away.

"Good job, 'my queen'," a familiar voice called to the Supreme Queen. A tall, blue haired boy with bright orange eyes was smirking at her from the top of the stairs. The Queen was a bit startled still but was glad the man was congratulating her rather then yelling. And then she heard another voice, a voice she hadn't heard since her other half and the king's other half faced him. She turned around with a glare. "You. What are you doing here?" she asked menacingly. The one who she viewed as a threat to her and the King's Kingdom. Dark Jesse smirked, seeing the queen infuriated was one of his favorite hobbies back in the old Empire. "Well, if you must know, 'You're Highness', Master Dartz brought me back too. Don't you worry your pretty little head, the King will awaken soon," he answered while grinning at her.

The girl scoffed at him and turned away. Why he had to be revived before the King was beyond her and it made her a tad angry, but Dartz seemed to be in a good mood and there was no way she wanted to make him angry again. "So, what is your plan Master Dartz?" Lucrecia spoke up, amused by the Queen and Dark Jesse for a moment then turned back to Dartz. "We trap the Guardian, rendering her 'army' useless and then... Everything will be in place to fulfill everything we want," Dartz answered, amuse. He looked to one of the statues that held the Pharaoh's soul, smirking. "Do you hear me, Pharaoh? Your Guardian will be unable to rescue you this time... And "we" will finally finish our game that you so rudely interrupted," he whispered quietly, his voice morphing into two.

Back in the present time:

The two motorcycles tore through the gate into the temple. The group landed in front of the temple entrance. Everyone looked around. All three timelines were floating around them like the night sky, the stars glowing around them. Miyuki looked around in wonder. "Wow, its so pretty.." she said, not being able to help look at the beautiful scenery, despite the fact they could be in danger. James got off his bike along with Christina and looked around. "Kristen! Kristen where are you? Answer me!" he called out. Christina walked over to Isabel, looking at the strange temple and timelines. "What is this place?" she asked with a raised brow.

Isabel carefully got off her bike. "A rip in reality..." she answered. "This place shouldn't exist..." She looked around and saw the Spirit World among the other timelines as well. "Dartz must be using these time times and realms to generate enough power to resurrect Leviathan..." Isabel's marking were glowing softly. "But this place is unstable... If Dartz succeeds, then he destroys reality and all of existence. Is bringing back his overgrown pet lizard worth that risk?"

Everyone stopped and looked at her with wide eyes. Christina closed her eyes in thought. "No way is this all to revive that monster. There must be something else that he wants. But what is it?" she said in wonder, her and everyone looking straight to the timelines.

"I don't know..." Isabel turned to the temple steps. "But we have to stop him before he succeeds..." She then turned back to everyone. "We have to be careful here, if we are seriously injured or killed, we may not exist back in our respective timelines... We'll be erased." She stood up straighter. "But I won't let that happen to you. Any of you." Miyuki grew concerned again and placed her hand curled up on her heart. "Isabel.." she whispered softly, her eyes sparkling in both admiration and worry. Christina looked to James and they both nodded and turned to Isabel, serious looks on their faces. "We didn't come here to turn back now. Might as well go all the way." the brunette with midnight eyes said with a grin.

Isabel nodded. "Everyone follow behind me." She started walking up the steps, her golden weapon sliding down her arm and forming into a sword. They reached the top of the steps and into the temple. It resembled that of Dartz's old lair, but it carried an aura of death. There were no voices to be heard. Miyuki grew extremely nervous about the aura around the lair, sticking very close to Christina. James was looking around for any signs of Kristen or the villains. Christina, who usually held a cool demeanor despite danger, was also nervous. It was like the time they ran into the Supreme King, that dark aura that would shake up even the bravest of people. Isabel stopped walking once they were standing in the middle of the lair. Something was terribly, terribly wrong: none of their enemies were in sight. Anywhere. Isabel lowered her weapon. Everything about this was wrong. "Where is everyone?" She questioned. Her back was to ritual table, and that's when it happened.

That's when the Supreme King rose up and the trap was sprung. The other villains came out and captured Miyuki and the others, pulling them away from the center of the room. The floor began to glow and all that could be heard was Isabel's scream of pain. Dartz stood next to the Supreme King, smiling to see his rival caught in the trap.

Miyuki was frozen with shock, her sky blue eyes fixated on the King. He in turn was looking to her with his fiery yellow eyes, until someone else familiar walked up and stood beside him, her lips curled in a wicked grin. "Hello little angel.." she said evilly. Christina too was in shock at being captured and from where she was, Rin stood, her eyes still blank. James was stuck looking at Lucrecia who broke into laughter, a hypnotized Kristen beside her. James glared angrily. "Give her back!" He growled, his mark glowing brightly.

Miyuki was still scared but upon hearing Isabel's scream asked, "What did you do to Isabel? To my other friends?" The glowing magic circle on the floor finally stopped, an immobilized Isabel on the ground, panting in pain as black slime held her in place. The slime lifted her to her feet as Dartz walked forward to her. "Well, well, little Guardian, how nice of you to join us," Dartz sneered. "Your luck ends here, girl." Dartz looked up to Miyuki and the others. "I have stopped the Guardian's powers, so she cannot stop us and cannot help you. But worry not, girl," Dartz stopping at Miyuki. "I will not kill the guardian. It does me no good to kill a condemned girl."

Christina raised a brow. "Condemned? What are you talking about?" She asked, angry at Dartz and the other villains for capturing them and hurting Isabel. Miyuki didn't say anything, instead looked worried and trying to figure out how they were going to get out of this predicament. James continued glaring as he watched Lucrecia carefully, ready to try and break free if she harmed Kristen in any way. Dartz smiled. "Oh, Isabel, Isabel, Isabel, deary, you didn't tell them?" Dartz turned to her. "You convince them of magic and time travel and of your wondrous powers, but you dare not tell your friends, whom you blindly lead into this fight, of the price you have to pay? The price you may have to pay now?" Dartz chuckled. "That you were condemned from birth to die for a dead man and fix a broken timeline with your blood and life? You, a seventeen year old teenager, who never knew or met this dead man, have to sacrifice your life for a complete stranger."

Isabel looked up to him in both pain and sorrow. She tried to fight her bondage, but the slime held tighter as she struggled. Dartz's laugher filled the air. "Honestly, it's foolish that this is your destiny, that you're willingly agreed to this fate. But now all your hard work was for naught."

Everyone's eyes widened and Christina turned to Miyuki whose eyes started tearing up. "It's not fair.." she muttered then looked to Dartz and Isabel. "It's not fair!" she shouted now, "Why does she have to be a sacrifice, why can't she live a normal life, like the rest of us?" She turned to the ground now, then looked up, face turned determined. "I won't let that happen! I won't let her sacrifice herself for everyone! It doesn't have to happen, we will find a way out of this and we will stop you without it having to come to her dying. I won't let you hurt my friend!" she shouted, struggling wildly now.

The Queen frowned and ran up and grabbed the girl by her shirt. "Listen you, the King has just been revived and I'm not going to let you or your stupid so called friends ruin our Kingdom again. Besides.." and now she chuckled, "What are you going to do about it? You're weak, you have no magical powers besides seeing and holding that silly spirit of yours. Your only hope is maybe the boy, but mostly it is your pathetic Guardian savior." "Don't worry about me, Miyuki..." Isabel called out softly. She had a small, soft smile on her pain stricken face. "That was my choice, and my choice is reason why your timeline and James' timeline exist in the first place. My life secures your guy's futures... If I didn't make that decision, then you, your friends and my friends would-no will be destroyed... And I can't stand ideally as the people I love die because I was too much of a coward or too selfish to do anything to save you all..."

"Sweet words, my little guardian," Dartz mocked, kicking her sword away from Isabel. "But now, I have changed history, and this time, you'll watch as your beloved world and time burns because you are here, unable to stop what I am about to do." Jesse started chuckling, stepping forward. "Master Dartz has been traveling through time, collecting souls from each timeline, and bringing time and space together," Jesse started to explain. He looked down at Isabel, smirking. "Even you following the Queen and the butterfly lady to this location was a part of the plan, as was resurrecting the Supreme King and myself too. Figured it out yet, honey?"

While the villains were focused on Isabel and the others, Happy Lover appeared behind Miyuki quietly. She saw how Isabel was trapped and noticed her sword that was kicked to the side. It suddenly got an idea. Carefully it floated over to the sword and looked down upon it in awe. She had a feeling she needed to use it to free Liz, but knew she couldn't possibly pick it up. She quickly flew back to Miyuki and chimed at her. Miyuki blinked. "Happy Lover? What is it? You know a way we can escape?" she said quietly but loud enough James and Christina could hear. Happy Lover waved a wing at the sword. "The sword.. is the way to get Isabel out.. but it can only be wielded by Isabel, anyone else it will hurt." James looked to Miyuki. "I'm surprised you can understand and see duel spirits. That's pretty awesome. As for the sword.. I'll do it. I'll use it to free us and Isabel." he said in an affirmative voice. Christina's eyes widened. "Didn't you hear Miyuki? That sword will hurt anyone that touches it except Isabel." she exclaimed. "If it will get us out of here and stop Dartz and them, it's a risk worth taking." he said with a small grin.

"All of this... Was just to revive Leviathan?" Isabel questioned, anger rising in her voice. There was a moment of silence before Dartz's laughter was echoing off the walls. "Foolish girl, you really believed that all of this is for that worthless demon?" He questioned, loud enough for everyone to hear. "All of this planning, and you never put the pieces together?" He smiled wider and more crazed. "Have you not once questioned my new powers, and how familiar it is to your own? Have you not questioned what brought me back? Since you haven't figured it out, I'll tell you. It's the very monster that started all of this, your arch rival... Your downfall..." Isabel's eyes grew in shock. "No... No, no, that's impossible-!" "Is it now?" Dartz smirked. "Because I wouldn't be here otherwise. The powerful demon that revived me was none other than Zorc. And gratitude for his gift, we will be resurrecting him."

Lucrecia chuckled evilly about this at it sounded like a great plan to reign destruction on the world. The King as always held an emotionless expression on his face. The Queen thought this was a great plan, but was wondering something. "And just how do we plan on resurrecting this.. Zorc?" she asked with a raised brow but a wicked smile, "By using the Guardian?" "No," Dartz answered smoothly. "No, as tempting as that would be, this child's role is to aid in his destruction. To use her soul would be counterproductive."

"Rin," Isabel started to call out quietly. "Rin, can you hear me? I know you're there; you don't have to help in this madness. Whatever Dartz promised you, he doesn't intend to fulfill." "Shut up, Guardian," Dartz growled, a second tone rising in his voice. "Rin, this is not you," Isabel started raising her voice. "You are not his slave, you don't owe Dartz anything. I know the first time we met, you were not yourself, but Rin, that doesn't matter, because I-" "SHUT UP!" Dartz yelled, slapping her across the face.

Miyuki and James grimaced, James waiting on the precise moment when he should break free and get the sword to free Isabel. Christina glared at the villains but upon seeing Isabel trying to snap Rin out of her possession, she decided to try too. Rin was standing there with a blank look, some of Isabel's words reaching her bit by bit, like tiny strikes on a shield. "Rin, listen! This isn't you and you know it. I've heard how strong of a duelist you are, how you studied hard to be an Obelisk, how you tried to fit in with the students. You shouldn't let your past control you!" she shouted, struggling a bit to break free from her bonds, to break everyone free so they could get Isabel's sword, break her free, and rescue Rin. These words really touched Rin and brought a tear to her face, she wanted to break free, struggled against it constantly, but Dartz magic was incredibly strong. To show she was starting to break through, her eyes changed to normal for a few seconds before she fell to the ground and closed them, weak from the magic as she started struggling. "Shut up, stupid girl," Dartz started his way over to Christina. "I won't let you sway my minions. I need them too-"

"- I forgive you, Rin," Isabel's voice, crystal clear, and loud enough for everyone to hear. "I forgive you, Rin. I hold nothing against you, even though you believe I should. But I don't. Your past can be forgiven. But the person you have to forgive is yourself. This life is too short for regrets." "ENOUGH!" Dartz yelled, his yellow eyes glowing insistently. Suddenly, the three Supremes, Lucrecia, and Rin started being dragged by an invisible force to the alter table. They couldn't fight against it, it was too strong. The card of the Pharaoh floated to Dartz's hand.

The Supreme Queen gave a yelp and grew confused as a mysterious force pulled her and the others to an alter table. "What, what is going on?" she said with wide-eyes. Lucrecia didn't like the look of this either and neither did the Supreme King. Rin hung limply by the force, now broken by Isabel's forgiveness and Christina's words, but was now stuck. She gritted her teeth and glared at Dartz.

"I worked too hard to have these brats ruin everything," Dartz responded, walking closer to his "allies". Souls that had been collected throughout the times started floating in too, accumulating at the ritual table. "There is something I forgot to mention: because the amount of souls I collected wouldn't be enough to revive Zorc alone, I needed powerful, dark souls. Your souls." Dartz was smiling now. "Your souls will be powerful enough to cement Zorc's being. Consider this your reward for all your hard work." The Queen, Lucrecia, and even the King was shocked at this. Rin had a feeling about it and struggled more against the bindings. "I won't let you get away with this, not after using me again to hurt my friends." she said with a growl. James decided now was the time to act. Using his Signer powers to freeze up and break what was holding him, he rushed to the sword and snatched it. It burned him a bit and he gasped in pain but quickly swung it down on what was holding Isabel while saying "Couldn't have said it better!" in response to Rin.

Dartz turned around to see the Guardian freed by the signer boy. He knew he was going to run out of time. "Sorry that this will have to end quickly," Dartz replied. As the souls grouped together, Dartz began to chant and the souls started to form into a dark shadow, engulfing the minions one by one. "Revenge is mine," Dartz spoke, his real voice replaced by that of another.

Isabel fell to the ground, free of the slime that held her. She got up and took the sword from James. "Help the others, we're running out of time." Isabel quickly summoned some monsters to help free Miyuki and Christina, then she bolted to Rin and the Pharaoh. Dartz and the card were already engulfed but the shadowy mass, but Rin was still fighting. "RIN!" Isabel yelled, reaching her hand out, grabbing on to the girl's hand. She started to try to pull her out.

The shadow began to take a more solid form, the form of a larger monster with ram like horns and a dragon wrapped around its waist. Its glowing red eyes had been forever burned into Isabel's nightmares and fears, its voice ever whispering as doubt in her mind. It was always foretold that Isabel would one day have to seal the demon's evil insider and then drag it down with her in her death. Isabel began to question of that day is right now.

James managed to bust everyone out and Miyuki and Christina ran to Isabel. James saw Kristen who started waking up after the hypnosis spell dropped upon Lucrecia being caught and ran to her and helped her up and they both went to the group. Staring up at the monster, they too felt fear. Isabel turned to the group. "Guys, I need your help! Help me save Rin!" Isabel was still recovering her strength, and Rin was slipping deeper into the darkness. But she refused to lose Rin. Christina nodded. "Let's go then!" she said and rushed forth and took a hold of Rin's arm and began to pull. It was difficult, the strength of the hold incredible. Miyuki joined in and pulled on Rin's waist. James stayed behind, taking care of Kristen to make sure she was ok after the hypnosis was tumbled down the stairs. Isabel held on to the three of them and pulled until they tumbled backwards down the stairs. She sat up, putting her hands on Rin's shoulders. "Rin, are you okay? Are you hurt?" she asked with concern. Zorc suddenly became less stable, his form shifting and changing.

Rin was shaking as she sat in the middle of all the girls. She had broken out of it finally and was glad but at the same time... Tears fell from her sunset colored eyes. "I'm sorry.. He possessed me again. I fell for it again. I caused so much trouble." she said, her usual strong appearance breaking to show a more fragile heart. Miyuki and Christina looked to her with sympathy but also forgiveness. Isabel pulled her into a caring hug. "Shh, shh, don't worry, honey," she whispered, as a mother would to her child. "Everything is going to be okay, Rin... I promise he won't be able to hurt you ever again. You're safe now... You're home."

Christina and Miyuki comforted her too. Rin accepted the hugs and the words, happy that she was forgiven, that they accepted her. She had built a wall for so long, not letting anyone close to her, afraid she would harm someone, but them... They accepted her as a friend. She looked up from them to Zorc. "We have to stop him. I will help you stop him. I won't let him hurt anyone anymore." she said. Christina and Miyuki nodded in agreement. "He looks like he's having problems since we released you. Maybe.. If we get the others out it'll stop him from being resurrected completely." replied Christina, "But how to do it. The Queen won't like getting help from us one bit."

"I'll get them out," Isabel spoke up. "I can go into his core and release all the souls he's collected, and the others. But it won't be easy, he's strong, even in this unstable state... We need something to draw his attention away from the rips in time." The girls sat in thought. It was then Miyuki came up with something and suddenly stood up and ran a bit until she was facing Zorc. "Hey Zorc! Why don't you take us on in a duel? If we win you disappear for good, if you win you get our souls. Think about it, six powerful souls to add to your power!" she shouted. James gawked at her. "Are you crazy?" he asked with wide eyes. Christina smiled. "That's the Miyuki I know, always coming up with crazy ideas." she said with a grin. Kristen looked to James with a smile. "It's ok, I can handle it. Besides that will buy us some time to rescue the other souls." she said. James looked back at her, glad he was able to get her back, and nodded in agreement.


	5. Chapter 5: The Duel Against Zorc

Isabel looked to Miyuki, surprised. "That's exactly what we need." She then turned to Rin. "Rin, you have to run, I won't let you get hurt by this monster." Zorc grinned, his voice and Dartz speaking as one. "Well, this is an interesting turn of events... Why not... With this, I can eliminate my enemies and conquer this wretched world!" His form shrank to a smaller human-demon form, but still towered over the children. A duel disk grew out of his arm. "Ready when all of you are." Rin shook her head at Isabel. "I want to help. I want payback for all Dartz has done to me, for all the hurt he has caused me and others I've known." with that she activated her duel disk. "I will conquer my fear of him. After all, now I have friends standing by my side." she said with a grin. James, Kristen, Christina, and Miyuki all readied up their duel disks as well, grinning together. "Let's do this guys, we can take him if it is all of us." Christina exclaimed.

Isabel looked at all of them with admiration. She closed her eyes, took a deep breathe. And when she opened her eyes, her blue eyes shined with excitement. The All American Champion activated her duel disk, cards ready, and turned to their enemy. "Lets duel."

All of the duelist lined up in the order they wanted to go in, Isabel at the end of the pack. Her markings started to glow. "The deal is struck for this Shadow Game," she spoke with confidence. "Should we win, you return the souls you've taken and return to the darkness from whence you came. Should you win, we are at your mercy. But do not underestimate your opponents, Zorc: may history be a reminder of that lesson." Zorc growled as the room filled with a chocking darkness. "And may you remember to whom you speak to, Guardian. But enough chat: let's begin! I'll allow you children to begin first, for a fair fighting chance."

Miyuki went first and summoned Nova Summoner in attack mode. And with a big grin also managed to use the field spell Sanctuary in the sky. The field changed to a sky filled with puffy white clouds and a temple which resided in the distance. Christina summoned Mirage Dragon in attack. James put a card in defense mode, Spellbreaker of the ice barrier. Kristen had D.D. Assailant out in attack. Rin had Machine King Prototype out.

Isabel drew her first card and smiled softly to herself. "I summon dragon egg in attack mode and then activate it's special ability to sacrifice itself when summon to bring out Dracoro (2500 ATK), Guardian of Dragons. Then, I activate from my hand Polymerization, to fuse Illuminara and Dracoro to fusion summon the Dragon of Heaven (2900 ATK) in attack mode!" The grey dragon who was summoned by the egg then fused with an aura of light from Isabel's hand, creating a beautiful white dragon with golden eyes. "I then place two cards face down and end my turn."

Zorc shielded his eyes from the intense light coming from his opponent's side of the field. But then he smirked. "How cute," he sneered, smiling. "The light verse darkness cliché. Now hold on to your lives as I change the game up a bit. Rin, I'm sure you're going to recognize this card." He drew the Seal of Orichalcos and played it on the field. As the new version of the seal began to engulf the field, it began to destroy Miyuki's Sanctuary field spell.

Miyuki, who had a facedown on the field, said, "Not so fast, I activate the spell field barrier to stop your seal field and save my own!" "Good job Miyuki." Christina said with a grin.

The orichalcos stopped at the barrier's appearance, but it is persistent. The two field spells were active at the same time with no damage. Zorc chuckled. "Well played, child," he congratulated. "This "Duel Academy" has trained you well... but my spell shall overpower your pesky Sanctuary in a few turns. I hope you have a backup plan. Now back to my turn, I summon Hell Spawn in attack mode (1500 ATK) and then use the spell card multiply to make ten copies of him." Zorc's field was soon infested with the monstrous minions set loose in every timeline the heroes had visited. "And with that, I shall attack all of your lesser monsters." The small horde charged.

Nova Summoner was destroyed, dealing 100 damage to Miyuki, but it was ok as this was planned. "I activate Nova Summoner's ability. When it's destroyed in battle I can summon another light fairy type monster on the field with 1500 atk or less, but since Sanctuary in the sky is on the field, it means I can instead summon Airknight Parshath!" A centaur looking man wearing blue and gold armor and carrying a sword and shield appeared. (Airknight Parshath 1900 attack) Mirage Dragon was stronger than the monsters coming after it so it destroyed it. D.D. Assailiant was also stronger, and in case of anything could take the monster down with it. James face down defense revealed Spellbreak who had 2000 defense. Machine King Prototype was stronger due to his ability making him 1700 attack and took down the monster easily.

Zorc frowned at Miyuki's new monster, and even more so at James face down monster.

"No matter, children..." Zorc hissed. "I shall end my turn with these three cards." Three face downs appeared behind his hoard. "You move. Use it well..." Miyuki drew and got what she was looking for in her hand. Smiling she looked to her Airknight Parshath who gave a nod. "I sacrifice AirKnight Parshath as a special ability to summon Neo Parshath, the Sky Paladin (attack 2600)!" she said with excitement. The horsemen disappeared and a bright light shone and appearing in his place was an angelic monster with gold and silver loops around it and he was holding a sword and shield. This was Miyuki's best card as she looked upon it with awe. She was nervous to attack though with the three face downs and decided to let the others go.

Christina saw in her hand an opportunity to also bring out her best beast. "I use the magic card monster gate. I tribute my Mirage Dragon and draw cards until I have a monster I can summon on the field." she said and drew the exact card she was looking for. "I summon Tyrant Dragon (attack 2900) to the field!" she said, a giant orange dragon appearing that Miyuki remembered immediately from her first duel with Christina. This giant dragon could block any traps targeting it, thus Christina may have a chance to attack.

Kristen's turn and she had a tuner card in hand. "I summon a tuner monster, Rose warrior of Revenge in attack mode!" she said and a young ninja looking girl with red hair appeared. "Now I synchro summon Rose to D.D. Assailant! When warriors battle it is with honor... I synchro summon Colossal Fighter!" The two ninja girls fused together into a bright light and out appeared a large tan buff man who looked like a cyborg. "Because of his ability, he gains 100 attack for every warrior type in any graveyard!" she said and his attack raised from 2800 to 3000. Miyuki and Christina were both staring confused. "Synchro what?" both of them said with raised brows. James chuckled. "Guess that's a new thing to you guys in the past isn't it? Well I think I'm about to do it too!"

Isabel smiled hearing them talk as Zorc became more irritable. Hope, is the first word that came to her mind as she watched these duelist grow in their timelines. Isabel thought about when she agreed to become guardian, to protect her friends and family, and the innocent people who would be affected by Zorc's power. Watching them... Was hope that her sacrifice will not be in vain... And she will do anything to protect that hope! James grinned. "Here I go, I summon a tuner monster Cryomancer of the ice barrier! And now I synchro summon Cryomancer to Spellbreaker! Listen to the howls of the blizzard winds... I synchro summon Brionac of the ice barrier! (attack 2300)" A large icy dragon appeared in the midst of an ice storm and gave a chilling cry.

It was James Signer dragon that made his mark glow brightly on his arm. Rin smiled at seeing the others strong monsters and it felt to her like they represented them in some way. She was glad she had friends like these that stood by her and wanted to help her in any way possible. She drew her card and her grin widened. "Alright Dartz and Zorc, this is payback for everything you did to me, to my friends! I use the card Double Summon which allows me to summon another monster on my turn instead of just one. Then I summon Twin Barrel Dragon in attack mode on the field. Then I sacrifice it and Machine King Prototype to summon the card Valon gave to me, Barrel Dragon!" A wicked looking dragon with a large gun for a head and two more guns on each side appeared with a loud roar.

Zorc/Dartz smiled at the familiar monster. "How... Sentimental you mortals can be." He chuckled darkly to himself. "Am I supposed to tremble at you monster's ability, girl? Go ahead, give me your best hit. Take revenge on us, the ones who have manipulated you and used you like the puppet you are." Rin didn't even flinch from the words. "I plan to. I use Barrel Dragon's ability which allows me to flip three coins and if two out of three are heads, I can destroy one of your monsters!" she said and three virtual coins appeared in front of Barrel Dragon and flipped. Just like she said, two out of three were heads. "Good, now I destroy one of your little minions." she said and Barrel Dragon fired lasers out of his cannons at the creature who disappeared. "And now I attack with him! Barrel Dragon go!" she said, sending out the creature she kept for so long, the creature given to her by Valon who she believed disappeared long ago thanks to this man.

Zorc/Dartz smiled maliciously. "Be the first to feel my wrath, child, I activate my face down heart of darkness. This card allows me to take a monster that has destroyed one of my monsters due to a special effect. Come to me, Barrel Dragon." Shadowy arms shot from the trap card and started pulling the metal dragon to Zorc's side of the field, the attack changing from him to Rin.

"I activate my trap card, darkness liberation! If I discard one card from my hand, one trap card will be negated this turn! I choose your heart of darkness trap to negate, thus Rin keeps her monster!" Isabel's face down glowed as she discarded get card. A scythe appeared and cut the arms off the dragon. Barrel Dragon continued to attack Zorc's monster, causing a significant amount of damage. "And the card I discarded was guardian of hell's gate, which allows me to draw one card if I discarded him from my hand." Zorc snarled at Isabel bitterly.

"Thanks Isabel." Rin said with a grateful smile. She about cracked seeing her favorite beast taken away from her, but even if Isabel didn't help, Rin would find a way to bring it back. "I believe it is your turn." she added to Isabel. "Right," Isabel nodded. She drew her card. "I summon Estrella in Defense mode (1800 DEF) and now I attack with Heaven Dragon, whose attack increases by 200 for every dragon on the field." "Nice try, foolish child, I won't allow that to happen, I activate my second face down, an old favorite, Mirror Force. Have fun with the damage, everyone," Zorc snarled.

"I activate Willing Sacrifice, which means I take all the damage," Isabel intervened. Her life points dropped from 4000 to 700 in one turn. "Willing Sacrifice's secondary allows me to draw another card from my deck." Everyone's eyes widened at Isabel's lifepoints. To think she would take all the damage, her deck was like a splitting image of her. Everyone decided now that they would attack with all their might next turn, to protect Liz and help her win the fight so she wouldn't have to do it alone. "I place one card face down and that ends my turn," Isabel spoke, still standing tall despite the new wounds inflicted on her.

Zorc started to howl with laughter. "Have you lost your mind, Guardian? You know what a Shadow Game can do, so why take the damage? Matters not, for it is my turn. I sacrifice two of Heaven Dragon, and my form shall be complete! Attack, my general, kill the wretched Guardian!" "I activate my face down Defusion, which will split my Heaven Dragon back to its original monsters." The card flipped up and glowed, separating the heavenly beast in the grey dragon and Illumminara. The attack then hit Dracoro, who shattered and died. Isabel's life points dropped to 200. "One more turn, guardian, and your pathetic life will end. I place a final face down card and that will end my turn. Go ahead, children, attack me, it will do little. My life points are untouchable, (Zorc LP: 24000), and yours weak and pathetic, just like this guardian. Make your final perpetration..."

The others were hesitant, unsure just how they can take him in one blow before he could destroy Isabel. "We need to attack him all at once, but how?" Christina muttered, concentrating on the duel. "Don't worry about me," Isabel replied. "We can beat him; we just need to be ready. Trust me. We just need to have faith." Everyone nodded in agreement to her words and looked to Zorc. "We shouldn't be afraid, we can do this, I know we can." thought Miyuki and said out loud, "I don't fear your traps. First I put a monster in face down defense (Marshmallon) and attack with Neo Parshath the sky Paladin!" One of the minions shattered into pieces as the paladin attacked. But this didn't seem to bother the demon.

Christina was a little nervous that Zorc didn't even flinch for his creature being destroyed. He had to be up to something, but that wouldn't stop her from attacking. After all Tyrant Dragon couldn't be affected by traps. "Go Tyrant Dragon, attack!" she shouted and the large winged beast drew flame in its mouth and blasted the field with it.

Again, Zorc didn't seem to mind another low level monster being destroyed. He let the damage continue, for now. It was Kristen's turn and she wasn't sure what to do at first. Seeing everyone attack made her think, maybe, just maybe, if they all keep attacking they can take him. She looked at her hand and saw an opportunity to not only attack with her special monster, but attack with much more. "I summon to the field Marauding Captain and thanks to his ability he lets me summon another monster level 4 or below from my hand to the field. I summon Command Knight!" With that a man in armor who looked like a general appeared along with a woman knight who clothes were quite feathery. "Thanks to Command Knight's ability, all my warrior monsters get a 400 attack boost. She also cannot be the target of attacks and neither can Marauding Captain." Now Marauding Captain was 1600 attack, Command Knight also 1600 attack and Colossal Fighter was 3200. "Now attack!" Two more minions were destroyed (21,200 lp), but a third minion was protected by the trap negate attack.

James grinned. "Nice job Kristen. Now it's my turn." he said and drew a card and looked at his hand. His brow lowered in thought then he got an idea when he looked at the field. "I special summon Medium of the Ice Barrier in attack mode because her ability says if the opponent controls 4 or more monsters than me I can special summon her." Appearing next to James' blizzard dragon was a beautiful woman with long aquamarine hair and bright blue eyes that looked distant, like she was calling spirits in the afterlife. "Now Brionac, Medium, attack!" (Brionac 2300 attack, Medium 2200)) The Dragon's mouth laced with cold air and blasted a blizzard at the monsters, the Medium sending out a strange ice monster out to attack.

The ice and frost melted away, revealing a large ritual arch and table, his four minions standing on the ritual table while the hell general stand before the arch. "I've allowed you children to have your fun, but I've had about enough of your games. I activate my face down card, the ritual card Hell Gate." He was smiling like a mad man.

Everyone's eyes widened in fear a bit though they were still determined to beat him no matter what. After all, the world depended on them. "What does that do exactly?" Christina asked, holding her ground, ready to do whatever it took to defeat him. Zorc smiled wider. "This card allows me to ritual summon a powerful monster, so powerful it shall destroy all of you in one fatal attack. But I must sacrifice all monsters on my field to summon it." Hell General raised his sword and slaughtered the minions. He then lifted his blade and stabbed himself with the blood rinsed sword. As he fell backwards, he fell into the gate. The temple began to shake and tremble, the evil gate began to glow blood red. Isabel, despite the gore before her and the fear around her, stood tall and unafraid. She was unshaken.

Christina, Kristen, Rin and James were fine and ready to take on anything. Miyuki however was frightened at the site of blood and the ritual. She trembled in fear when suddenly Happy Lover popped up and hugged her with a small squeal and pulled Miyuki's head towards the others. It was then Miyuki saw how everyone was looking brave and determined, unafraid of what was to come. She looked to Happy Lover who talked to her in all sorts of squeals. This made Miyuki smile. "You are right, I need to be brave. Everyone else is doing their best so I need to too. We can do this, no doubt about it!" she said.

Zorc began to disappear from his place. "Did I mention that the monster this card summons... Was me?" He howled in laughter. He vanished and was summoned to the field. His form changed into his monstrous, towering form. His attack was 5000. "I could really attack you all right now, but I was not summoned on my turn. But you better hurry: only two turns left before I kill all of you." Everyone wasn't quite sure what to do. None of their monsters were strong enough to handle him by themselves. James canceled his attack and glared. "I.. I end my turn." he said, hoping someone would have something in mind to take him out. "Don't be discouraged, everyone," Isabel spoke up, he voice unwavering. "We can beat him. Together. Don't let his size and strength discourage you from victory. We can win." She smiled at the others encouragingly. "Rin, it's your turn."

James smiled. "Right." he said and turned to Rin. She blushed a bit from the encouragement and drew her card. "I use Barrel Dragon's ability to flip three coins. If two are heads I can destroy a monster on the field." she said and the golden coins from before appeared again. To her dismay it was two tails, but she wouldn't stop there. She had a backup plan. "I place a monster face down in defense (Blast Sphere) and end my turn." she said. Now it was Isabel's turn, and if Isabel couldn't do anything, she had to be ready. What she put face down would destroy his monster if attacked and deal life point damage equal to the monster's attack. She just hoped that would be enough on her end.

"Now, Guardian, complete you're final move," Zorc mocked. "No matter what you do, it shall prove fruitless." "Your pride blinds you, Zorc," Isabel spoke up, her markings slightly glowing. "As Goliath underestimated David, he paid the price for his pride with his life. We shall not lose," Isabel smiled, drawing her card. "I activate the spell card angel feather, which allows me to choose one spell card from the graveyard and add it to my hand. I choose polymerization, and I activate it. I fuse Illuminara and Estrella to create the guardian of time, Cronanas!" The two angels fused into light and into a beautiful warrior, a clock face as a shield and a clock hand as her sword. Her attack was at 3500. Zorc was surprised to see such a monster on the field. "I next activate my face down, Heaven's Calvary, which allows me to have all the monsters on my side of the field to combine an attack. And because I share the field with my teammates, we have enough combined attack to destroy you!" Zorc was shaken at this realization.

Everyone's face lit up at this card and watched as all their monsters helped Isabel's monster attack Zorc, Miyuki's Paladin striking with brilliant light, Christina's dragon with flames, Kristen's with swords and a giant punch from Colossal Fighter, James with blizzards galore, and Rin's with powerful lasers. "We have you now!" Everyone shouted at once. Isabel closed her eyes as her monster attacked with the others; a part of her soul entered the attack, going into Zorc's core.

"Pharaoh! Pharaoh, where are you?! Isabel called into the dark void. "Isabel!" Pharaoh called back. His soul shined like a light in the darkness. The two embraced in a hug. Isabel began to cry softly on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Pharaoh, I let you down..." "This wasn't you're fault, Isabel," he comforted. "You came and found us." He motioned to the other souls who were devised by Dartz. Isabel looked to them. She took a deep breath. "I've come to get you guys out of here and free from Zorc's control." The Supreme Queen didn't look pleased. She wasn't pleased she was tricked and she definitely wasn't ready to get help from the person who had socketed her a good one on the face. "Why should I accept help from you, after all you've done to me and my King?" She glared. Lucrecia on the other hand looked displeased but for a different reason. "I will accept your help. I don't like it when people pull tricks on me. I think I'll also help you with destroying him. He needs to pay for messing with the Dark Signers." She grinned rather maliciously despite her beautiful looks. The King didn't say a word as he first looked out at everyone then turned to Isabel. "I'll go." He said and the Queen gasped. "WHAT!? But she... She is the enemy!" She shouted in anger.

"Your highness, please listen to reason," Pharaoh pleaded. "Dartz never intended to fulfill the promise he told you. You would just empower him." "Queen, please," Isabel spoke up. "If you don't leave, Zorc will destroy everything we all love." The Queen calmed down, especially upon hearing that Zorc would destroy everything, including her empire. Seeing the King nod at her to come, she scoffed. "Alright, I'll come and help you. But that doesn't mean I won't forget our fights Guardian." She huffed and walked next to the King. "Alright little one, lead the way." Lucrecia smiled, "I'm ready to get out of here as much as I'm sure these two do." Isabel smiled. "Take my hand, I'll get us all out." Everyone took her hand and she began to lead them out or the core. As they began to exit, Zorc's energy tried to keep them in. Thankfully, the attacks from the outside weakened him significantly.

Isabel took a deep breath as her soul returned to her body. Pharaoh appeared next to her as a spirit, as did the three Supremes. Zorc was barely in tack, due the amount of the attacks.

Miyuki's eyes widened at seeing the spirits suddenly appear. "Wha-How did you do that?" She asked wide eyed. The others were surprised as well but decided the answers could wait. Now was the time to finish Zorc. "We have him now everyone. With those souls gone he is very unstable. Let's finish this!" said Christina this time to encourage the others who gave a cheer.

Zorc suddenly began to thrash around in pain, and souls began to escape. The duel was finished as Zorc began to disintegrate, until he was nothing but slime. The shadows vanished, the holograms too. "It's done," Isabel sighed.

The slime began to move, and Dartz began to crawl towards them. "No..." He spoke in a breathless, hollow voice. Zorc's voice could be heard besides Dartz's. But as he crawled closer, his body began to disintegrate to flesh and bones. "I... Re...fuse...tooooo..." He became nothing more than a skeleton, and fell apart. Everyone watched a tad disgusted but at the thought that the battle was finally over, looked at each other and cheered. James and Kristen hugged each other for a second then blushed and let go a few seconds later. Rin looked absolutely relieved. "It's.. it's finally over." She said quietly, a small tear in her eye, "I did it Valon." Miyuki was hugging and tossing around Happy Lover happily. Christina chuckled at everything that was going on and smiled warmly at Rin.

Pharaoh put as hand on Isabel's shoulder. "Great job, Isabel," he congratulated. "You and your friends did great." Isabel smiled, happy it was all over. Suddenly the temple began to tremble and a huge bolder fell from the ceiling, crushing the ritual table.


	6. Chapter 6: Sacrifice

"To the motorcycles, now!" Isabel yelled, leading everyone to the exit. As they ran outside, the timelines began to close, and the rip began to repair itself. "Onto the bikes!" she yelled. Everyone in a panic got on the bikes which James and Kristen took control of and turned them on and rushed towards the exit. The spirits followed, the Queen and King with Miyuki and Lucrecia quietly behind Rin as she was sure James and Kristen were still mad at her. Isabel jumped on her bike, Miyuki followed. "Lucrecia, come with me!" Isabel called. Lucrecia raised a brow at the suggestion but followed and stuck with her and Miyuki.

Isabel began to ride at the temple fell apart. She started to look for anything that could help them reach Kirstin and James' timeline and saw a fallen pillar at the right angle. "Follow me!" Isabel called back. She started going faster towards the only exit. Kristen and James followed a bit wide eyed at the idea and proceeded to go even faster to stay behind Isabel. Miyuki held tight as she was still not used to the fast motorcycle speeds. Rin was with Kristen and Christina with James.

Isabel started up the pillar and sped up at the lift off. They were flying through the air, descending back into time. As they started falling into their timeline, with James and the others following, Isabel's markings began to glow, and she turned her head to find Zorc's dark aura falling after them.

 _"IF I CAN'T CONTROL ALL OF TIME AND SPACE, I WILL START BY DESTROYING YOUR FUTURES!"_ Zorc hollowed with rage. Miyuki's eyes widened in fright as she held on tighter. "What do we do?" She managed to say to Isabel through the sound of the cycles. Kristen and James also were surprised by this sudden aura and quickly just sped up their bikes to get away from it. Isabel looked shock, but then changed to a serious face. "Lucerica, take the wheel," Isabel spoke in a serious tone. Lucrecia's eyes widened and a look of confusion was brought on her face, but she obeyed, taking Isabel's spot carefully and keeping the bike going. Miyuki looked afraid. "Wait, what are you going to do?" She asked, immediate concern for her friend.

Isabel remained silent as stood on the back of the bike. "What I was destined to do," she replied. "Make sure Miyuki gets down safely, Lucerica. Before you ask, I do trust you: you're not as evil as you think you are. And Miyuki... Goodbye."

Isabel jumped off the bike and started going up to Zorc. Miyuki's eyes watered as she watched Isabel jump away from them. "Isabel!" She cried out into the darkness that was surrounding the place. Lucrecia stared off after the girl as well before realizing she needed to get them out of there. The girl's words floated in her mind and the fact she went off by herself willingly to defend her friends made her feel like she was right. Maybe she wasn't meant to be a villain. Maybe her goals of revenge were wrong. Not to mention the accusation that James and Kristen killed her beloved. After seeing them in action she started to believe there was no way they could of been the ones. Seeing the distress in Miyuki she smiled warmly at her. "Don't worry, she will be ok. I have a good feeling on it." She said as she led the others, who were also distressed but felt maybe there was hope for everything, out of the place and back into James and Kristen's timeline.

Once she was close enough to him, Isabel yelled, "Hey Zorc! Let us end it!" She began to glow brighter, her markings glowing a different color. As Zorc was beginning to be pulled in, Isabel began concentrating some of her magic in making sure the others would land safely and return to their proper timelines. The fall would be enough to kill her and Zorc too. She began to loosen up, allowing the magic to take its course. It would be easier if it didn't feel like her chest was on fire- wait. She opened her eyes to see her marking of the Millennium Puzzle was glowing brighter than the rest and saw Pharaoh beside her, one hand holder her and another in front, the Puzzle glowing. "What are you doing, Pharaoh?!" Isabel questioned. "Today is not your end," Pharaoh answered. And no more had to be said, as Isabel began to re-concentrate her power into amplifying the Puzzle's power. She suddenly noticed the three Supremes were beside her too, using their powers to help Pharaoh.

The others did make it back safely and Miyuki was confused to see that Lucrecia had disappeared. They were back at the arena and awaiting them was Aku. "Hey, there you guys are! Where have you been? I managed to hold things up here along with Jack. Hey Kristen, did you know your brother is a Signer too? Crazy stuff.." he started saying when he saw the gloomy expressions on everyone's faces. "Hey, what's wrong? The fact you guys are here and the universe seems safe means you succeeded, means we won right? Wait... Where is that spunky brunette that was hanging with you guys?" He added, confusion on his face. Everyone was silent except Christina who decided to speak up as she held onto Miyuki with one arm to comfort her. "She.. didn't come out with us. She went back to defeat the monster. From the looks of things it looked like she succeeded, but not without a price." She said with much sadness. Aku's expression also changed to sadness.

"Hey, what's up with all the doom and gloom?" a voice perked up. As the others turned to find the source, to find the American landing right behind them, the four spirits beside her. Everyone turned around with great shock and happy surprise. Miyuki immediately ran and glomped Isabel. "You are alive!" She shouted with glee. Christina laughed. "Well how about that. We all thought you went and sacrificed yourself for good." She said with a smile. Aku was looking the most surprised. "How did she-, who are they-, just what happened while you were gone?" He asked with huge eyes. Kristen laughed and James laughed. "We will tell you the whole story later, if you mind me telling it." James grinned. Aku huffed. "I would rather have Kristen tell it but I guess hearing it from you is fine." He said with a glare to James who glared back. Rin walked up to Isabel, a hand on her chest. "How did you get out?" She asked with curiosity.

"Pharaoh and these three helped me," Isabel motioned to the Supreme king, Queen and Jesse. "They banished Zorc to the Shadow Realm so I didn't have to sacrifice myself. But I have to admit, I did not expect you three to help- not that I'm ungrateful or anything, I'm very grateful that you did!" Isabel stuttered. The Queen glared and had her arms crossed. "I only helped because my King asked me to do so. It makes us even now since you helped us escape from that wretched creatures claws. Next time though I won't be so nice to you or the little angel." She said with a scowl. The King simply nodded and even smiled a tiny bit. The others grinned and laughed about the Queen. Miyuki slowly walked up to the King. "Thank you, for saving her." She said softly, beating her fears back of the King. He said nothing as he looked at her and simply patted her head, which put the Queen in instant rage mode in the back.

Isabel giggled, look at the Queen's rage. "Careful, Miyuki, a raging fan-girl is worse than a normal one.," she teased. She took this moment to walk over to James and Kristin. Before she began to thank them, Isabel noticed the burns on James' hands. "How did you burn your hands?" she asked with concern.

Kristen then noticed it too. James had been concealing it from her the whole time in order for her not to worry. "It was when I grabbed your sword to set you free. Happy Lover warned me of the danger but there was no other way." he said with a small sad look. Kristen looked at it and noticed it was quite bad when James winced from it. "James..." She said softly, having no idea the risks he took to save them. She looked to Isabel. "Is there a way to heal this?" She asked. Isabel smiled. "No problem." Her markings began to glow softly and she took James' hands. The injuries began to heal immediately, as if they never existed. "That was brave of you. Foolish, but brave." Isabel smiled at the two of them. "I can't express how happy and grateful I am that you two helped us." She hugged them both.

Both of them blushed big time at the compliments and hugs and James laughed nervously about being called foolish but brave. Aku saw them and said, "Hey, what about me? I stayed here to keep everything safe!" he said with a big grin. Isabel let the two go and smiled at Aku. "And I have to thank you for your actions too," she added. "Thank you again." A card in Isabel's deck began glowing on and off again. She pulled it out and saw it was the time travel card. "I'm sorry, it looks like we have to get going." She looked up to the sky to see the rips gone and the destruction started to rebuild itself. "Time is beginning to repair itself and I along with the others need to return to our timelines. James, Kristin, Aku... I'm really gonna miss you." Isabel had a small smile on her face.

Miyuki, Christina, and Rin, upon hearing Isabel say they needed to get back to their timelines, went to stand near her and looked at the others. Kristen smiled weakly. "Of course, I didn't expect you guys to stay forever though I wish you could of stayed longer, maybe witness our tournament. It was.. a fun and crazy adventure." she said. Aku gave a grin and placed his arms behind his head. "I'm sure maybe we'll see each other someday, if not we will hear about you." he said. James shook his head. "We won't see them again, their timelines are probably years and years before ours, though hey, if they get married and have kids and so on and so forth, maybe we'll meet their children." he chuckled and Miyuki blushed madly.

"Don't worry," Pharaoh spoke, using some of Isabel's powers to make himself visible and heard. "All of you will remember this adventure because you were directly involved. Everyone else will not and anyone who had their soul taken will forget the experience." Isabel smiled. She turned to James and Kristin. "Well, James, Aku, Kristin Atlas, it was a pleasure meeting you."

Everyone's eyes widened at the site of the Pharaoh. "Isn't that, Yugi Mutou?" He exclaimed. Kristen and James were a bit shocked as well but smiled at Isabel. "Thank you, for saving our world. And we were glad to help. It was wonderful meeting you, all of you." Kristen said and James blushed a bit and nodded in agreement. Miyuki looked sad but knew they had to go.

Isabel waved goodbye as she activated the card, taking her, the girls and the spirits back to their timeline. "Good bye, my friends!" could be heard before she completely vanished. "And yes, that was Yugi!"


	7. Chapter 7: Back Home

The card landed them by the tree where Isabel first met the girls. The timeline here was also being repaired. Christina, Rin and Miyuki looked around, realizing they were back in their own time now. Miyuki looked to Isabel. "Will you.. be going back then?" she asked, saddened that she had to leave so many new friends behind. Isabel looked to Miyuki with some sadness. "Yes... time has to return to the way it was, to prevent time paradox's and other dangers..." She hugged Miyuki. "I am going to miss you terribly. All of you."

Christina smiled and patted Miyuki on the shoulder. "Don't worry, we will remember each other always. We have been through so much together, how could we possibly forget?" She said to her kindly. Miyuki teared up a bit at Christina's words and Isabel's hug. "Promise you won't forget us?" she said, Happy Lover appearing next to her, sad that Isabel had to leave. Isabel smiled wider. "That, my dear little angel, is impossible." She looked up to Rin. "Rin, I promise when I return to my timeline, I'll make sure Valon finds you. If I'm remembering correctly, when he woke up, he was asking for you."

Rin looked surprised. "You mean he's... alive?" she exclaimed with shock. She believed forever he disappeared completely along with Dartz. Christina walked up to her. "It's what I was meaning to tell you Rin, he is alive." she said then suddenly turned around to Isabel. "Now that I think about it..." she began to say as it slowly dawned on her, "I may have saw you in Battle City after all! I can't remember the details, but I feel like I did!"

Isabel was surprised at Christina and then the memory came back. "Wow, that was such a long time ago, yet it feels like yesterday. I remember meeting you, some Rare hunters were picking on you and I drove them off. You were so little, I think you were about fourteen, fifteen maybe?" Isabel smiled. "It was a brief meeting and I was busy with... other things, but I am delighted to know that little girl I met grew up to become an amazing woman." Isabel hugged Christina.

Christina blinked and gave a small laugh. "Geez, you're embarrassing me." she said with a smile as she hugged back. Rin smiled at all this. "Thank you, all of you, for everything. For looking out for me, and saving this world and all the others." she said. Miyuki grinned and held onto Happy Lover who snuggled into her arms. Christina looked to her. "Of course. We are all friends now, and hey, I don't want to live in a dark world any more than anyone else does. Besides.." with this she gave a peace sign, "it's fun being a hero!"

Isabel smiled and started laughing. She hugged all three of them. "I'll miss you guys, but I'll be at peace know the futures are in good hands. Oh and Miyuki, don't forget what I told you," Isabel finished with a wink. Miyuki's face lit up red as the other two girls laughed with glee at the hugs. Christina chuckled at Miyuki. "Oh? Is it about Jaden?" She teased. Miyuki's face went even darker, "Speaking of which, we should go see him, see how he and Jesse are doing." Miyuki merely nodded at the suggestion. Isabel smiled. She picked the card off the duel disk and walked next to Pharaoh. "Good bye everyone," Isabel smiled, a tear running down her face. The card glowed like a star and began to shatter, engulfing the King and his Guardian in light, taking them back to the timeline they belonged.

Happy Lover suddenly became invisible again in front of Christian's eyes. Everyone waved their goodbyes as Miyuki looked on sadly. Christina suddenly realized Happy Lover, who was in Miyuki's arms a second ago, disappeared. "Hey, where did Happy Lover go? She was just here a second ago." She said with surprise. Miyuki giggled. "She's in my arms. I guess... You can't see her anymore can you?" She said with a tilt of her head. Rin laughed. "With all I have seen, I can believe just about anything can happen now." She said. The three of them walked back to the Academy, where the others were waiting.

"I'm going to miss them, Pharaoh..."

"I know, Isabel... But you know as well as I do that..."

Not everything is written in stone.


	8. Chapter 8: A Happy End

Syrus ran up to three girls, excited. "Miyuki, Christina, Jaden and Jesse are waking up! Whatever Isabel did to them earlier saved them! Come on, hurry!" Miyuki and Christina and Rin perked up and quickly followed Syrus to where Jesse and Jaden were. Miyuki blushed a bit as they entered the room, everyone there happy that everything was fine. The Supreme King and Dark Jesse returned to their host, letting both boys finally wake up. Jesse smiled his bright, sunny smile as he saw the girls run in. "Hey- wait, what happened, how did we end up here?" he questioned.

Christina laughed. "It's a long story. I'll tell you whenever you would like me too." she said with a smile. Miyuki slowly walked forward and up to where Jaden was. "Hey Jaden, how are you feeling?" she asked rather shyly, holding on to Happy Lover who squealed a hello to everyone. Rin stood in a corner as she didn't know everyone around that well, but was glad everyone was ok.

Jaden looked to Miyuki. "Yay, I'm fine... Are you okay? The king is telling me everything that happened..." Miyuki's eyes widened at this. "I'm.. I'm fine. A lot of crazy things happened involving the Queen.. But I'm fine." she said with a smile and sat down on a chair near Jaden. Happy Lover squealed with glee at Jaden and leapt up on landed on his head.

Jaden smiled at Happy Lover. "Thanks buddy." He turned to Miyuki. "I'm happy you and the others are safe." Jaden's big smile returned to his face.

Christina had been telling the story to everyone, about Isabel, about time traveling, about the future world where Kristen and James and Aku lived, about the villains who they met in the past and had to fight again and new villains who they had never seen. About card games on motorcycles and how they met Yugi Muto (though she already had met him before) and everything. Miyuki had been listening with a grin when suddenly happy lover got an idea and flew behind her and pushed her right into Jaden, causing them to be face to face. Miyuki blushed like wild as she stared into his auburn eyes with her own sky blue ones. Jaden didn't seem to notice that he moved closer to Miyuki, but he didn't seem to mind.

Miyuki was sitting in the study room of the Obelisks the next day, a text book in front of her about the history of dueling and Domino city. Christina had passed by and upon seeing her there, walked over to her. "What are you looking at?" she asked with much curiosity, taking a seat next to Miyuki. "Oh, hey Christina. I was looking through this textbook to see more stuff about Isabel, to see, you know, if she lived for a long time without needing to sacrifice herself." she said, looking kind of sheepish with a blush on her face as she continued to look through the book.

She flipped to a page where a picture of Yugi, Kaiba, Joey and Isabel, along with Noah and their other friends at the grand opening of the American Kaiba land amusement park. She looked only a few months older then the last time the girls have seen her, her hair grew out. Miyuki gave a gasp and Christina smiled. "Well, there you go. Now she definitely looks like the girl I met long ago. Wonder why her hair was so short when we met her?" She said in wonder. Miyuki grinned now and looked to Christina. "So she's ok!" She said with excitement. "Looks like it. Still can't believe she is dating my bosses step brother. Speaking of my boss, I was thinking of calling him and telling him about Isabel." She said with a mischievous grin and walked off, leaving Miyuki to look through the book more.

Once outside, Christina dialed Kaiba's number and once he picked up, the first thing she said was, "Guess who I had an adventure with?" And she began explaining everything that had happened. Sadly, Miyuki's joy was short lived when she read that after this photo was taken was the last time Miss Corazon was seen in public. The book didn't say anything else. Seto chuckled as he heard Christina's story. "No doubt about it, that was definitely Isabel," Seto answered. "So, Christina, what did she tell you about me?"

Miyuki teared up a bit but remembered that Isabel lived a life with no regrets and loved her friends and family to the point of willing to sacrifice herself for the greater good. Christina smirked at the question. "Glad you asked." and proceeded to tell him all the stories Isabel told her, how he broke up with her and punching Noah in the face, everything. "Oh God, of course she shared that story," Seto laughed, an unusual sound to come from the CEO. "As foolish I was at that age, it was some of my best times..." "I regret breaking her heart the way I did... But Noah gave her a happiness I never could..." Christina smiled at all this. "You have changed Seto.. Definitely for the better." she said, grinning all the while. "That's pleasant to know. So, it the school still standing after all that madness?"

It was then Miyuki was running up to Christina to tell her what she had found out. "Yep, the school is doing well. Everyone is doing well in their classes. To think they'll all graduate soon." she said, kind of sad thinking about it as she watched Miyuki approach. "Well, that's good to hear- I'm sorry, Christina, I have to go, I have another phone call coming in." And with that Seto hung up. Christina said "No problem." before hanging up her phone and turning to Miyuki. "What's up?" she asked curiously. "It's just.. the book... It says after that photo Isabel wasn't seen in public since." Miyuki said, still kind of sad about it. Christina gave a small smile and pats the shorter girl on the head. "Just because that textbook may have said that, doesn't mean it is true. For all we know she's exploring worlds somewhere, trying to find Valon for Rin or something." she said to try and cheer the girl up. "Yeah, maybe you are right. In any case I'm off to find Jaden. I... I feel like I should tell him the truth.." she said, a blush crawling across her cheeks as she ran off and left the textbook with Christina who took it and placed it back where it belonged. "Have to say I'm kind of jealous, wish I was known well enough to be in a book." Christina said softly with a giggle and walked off.

The girls headed to the dueling arena, where some class promotion duels were being held. The girls found the group easily in the front seats of the duels. Rin, however, was not found among the group. Christina sat with Miyuki who sat with Jaden and the others and looked everywhere for Rin. When she saw the girl wasn't there, she got a little concerned. "Wonder where she is?" Christina thought in wonder. "She said she wanted some time for herself for a little while," Alexis spoke up. "I tried convincing her to join us, but she said she would join us later."

Rin was indeed outside on the school grounds, standing on one of the cliffs that overlooked the sea. The wind tossed her long braided purple hair about as her sunset colored eyes looked deep in thought. Isabel said she would find him, but who knows where he could have gone. "It's the thought that counts. It was rather nice of her to do that for me, a complete stranger who only met her once." She thought out loud rather quietly, giving a small smile. So many people that cared for her, more than she ever imagined. It was nice compared to the days where she was completely on her own. It made her tough, but her soft heart secretly wished she could have friends, to have someone that cared for her. And her wish was finally granted.

Back at the arena, Jaden was listening to Miyuki's findings about Isabel. He held her hand to comfort her. "Maybe the book is wrong," Jaden tried to encourage. Miyuki blushed a bit, unable to hide it at all. "Y-Yeah.. Maybe you are right." She said and subconsciously grasped his hand back. Upon seeing she did that she blushed even harder and looked back to Jaden. Christina smiled at the two and thought, "Aww, young love." "I... I want to tell you something I-important J-Jaden...M-Maybe away from here, or um, something." Miyuki began to say, stuttering like mad as she tried desperately to control her shyness, making her look extra cute.

Jaden looked confused for a moment, but responded with a nod. He walked off with her. "What's up?" Miyuki heart was pounding heavily and her mind was flustered. This was it, after all this time hanging with him, after everything they have been through, she had to tell him she liked him all this time. She remembered Isabel's words and tried to be brave. "Jaden.. I... I.." her head rushed but she took a deep breath. "I really like you." She said rather quickly, looking down to the ground, face beet red.

Jaden looked somewhat surprised, a small blush came across his face. "Uh... Y-you do?"

Miyuki looked up slowly, feeling a bit calmer now that she got to say it. "Y-Yeah. Ever since you gave me that card, I started to like you. You are really nice, and funny, and fun to be around." she said, shifting a little and blushing when Happy Lover appeared and settled in her arms to calm Miyuki down more. She was still nervous; did Jaden feel the same way about her? She had no clue, though Happy Lover chimed and gave a small giggle at the blush on Jaden's face. Jaden was quiet for a minute and then smiled at her. "I like you too." Miyuki at first wasn't quite sure what she heard him say for a second, and then her brain realized it and she quickly looked up with a surprised face. Her face was even darker than before. "Y-Y-You do?" she stammered. Suddenly Happy Lover leaped out of Miyuki's arms and pushed her towards Jaden. "H-Hey Happy Lover, what are doing? Hey!" she said, looking back to her companion and waving her arms frantically.

Jaden hugged Miyuki, smiling. "Of course I do, Miyuki! You are the best!" Happy Lover giggled and seeing Jaden hug Miyuki and seeing Miyuki's face turn the darkest red possible, got an idea. She slipped out from between and flew back a bit, then proceeded to run into the back of Miyuki's head, causing the girl to fling forward and her lips to land on Jaden's as they ended on the ground together. She opened her eyes to see she had kissed Jaden and her eyes widened as she slowly pulled away, her cheeks crimson.

Jaden was wide eyed, blushing almost as red as Miyuki. He then smiled and hugged her. "I think that worked out well... Oh, we should probably tell the others about us, uh?" Miyuki blushed even more but was happy. To think he liked her back, it made her heart all giddy. She put her head against his. "Y-Yeah.." she said, heart beating madly as she took his hand. Happy Lover squealed rejoice and plopped itself on Miyuki's head. The two walked back to the group, holding hands and smiling all the way. People they walked by noticed this new couple and were shocked.

Miyuki looked around, remembering why she had pulled that scheme of hers long ago in the first place. But now it didn't matter, not when Jaden liked her too. She was still blushing and continued to blush all the way down to the group.

Christina looked up at the two and was smirking. FINALLY, it was about time. Miyuki blushed at Christina's smirk and shifted her feet around as she sat next to Jaden. Everyone kind of gasped when they saw they were holding hands. "So, how'd it go?" Alexis teasingly asked her fellow Obelisk. Miyuki looked up to Alexis and gave a small smile and blush. "Fine.." she said and listened to Happy Lover squeal and say something about "I made them kiss." and blushed like crazy saying, "Happy Lover.." Before Miyuki could continue, she heard one of the duelist on the arena say something very... unexpected.

"I summon Estrella, Guardian of the Stars, in attack mode!" a female duelist called out, summon a little child surrounded by stars and light. Miyuki froze and her head shot in the direction of the voice. "Wait, it couldn't be, could it?" she said and Christina also looked around, just as surprised as she was. Out on the field, just a spot or two away from where they were sitting, a Ra student with long brown hair tied back in a ponytail was dueling an Obelisk student. On her field were Estrella, Aquois and Flamma, and two face down cards. Her back was to the group, but the screen above her showed her face. She had bright blue-green eyes and a face that looked like a mix of Japanese and Hispanic, very nicely mixed.

The Obelisk student, who had a 7 started monster on his field, laughed at the little angel. "Really, I back you up in a corner and you summon a weakling?" he scoffed. The girl smirked. "Like I always say, don't underestimate the little guys like Goliath did to David! I activate my face down card Polymerization, and I fuse Flamma and Estrella together to summon Shining Nova (ATK 2700)! That's 200 more attack points more than your monster. I then activate my other face down card, Quick Attack, which allows my fusion monster to attack this turn!" The fiery star angel attacks the dragon, shattering him off the field. The Obelisk was almost done.

Christina and Miyuki both looked at each other with shocked faces. "No doubt about it, that's Isabel's deck, and she said that same phrase when we were versus Zorc." said Christina. Miyuki tilted her head. "But that doesn't look quite like Isabel unless.." The two put their heads together and their eyes grew to the size of tennis balls. "She had a daughter!?" they both said in unison and looked at the screen to see the duelist's name.

"And I'll end the duel with Aquoius, attack you directly, ending the duel!" the girl finished. As the beautiful water angel delivered the final blow, the duel monitor above them dropped the opposing Obelisk's life points to 0. The screen lit up, declaring a Mikomi Kaiba the winner of the duel. The holograms vanished off the field and the Obelisk shook hands with her.

And no doubt about it, the girl had inherited the American's bright, hopeful smile. She started walking off stage when another Obelisk boy, with brown hair with bluish streaks running through, ran to the girl, telling her something that was drowned out in the cheers. Her face lit up with surprise and began to follow him, but stopped when she looked towards Miyuki and the group. She said something to the boy and started running over to them.

"Excuse me," Mikomi called out to them as she approached the bleachers. "By chance, are you Miyuki Tenshi and her friend Christina?" Christina and Miyuki blinked. "Yeah.. I'm Christina." Christina said startled. "I'm Miyuki yes.." Miyuki said softly, also startled. The girl smiled even bright. "That's wonderful!" she cheered. "My mom told me stories about you two! She told me to find you when I came to the Academy!" The girl's eyes went even bigger. "Whaaa.." both of them said. When Christina got back her composure with a cough, she looked back to the girl. "So uh, your Isabel's daughter huh? What is your name?" she asked. Miyuki perked up too, as she now realized that despite what the textbook said, Isabel had children, she had to be ok! Christina in her head thought, "Wow, she had a kid? I guess when she met us, it was her younger self traveling to the future. That means she has to be.. Older than me!" This thought shocked the girl a bit.

"I'm Mikomi, Mikomi Kaiba," the smiled. "She told me all about her adventures when she was my age. Speaking of my mom, she's here on the island right now. My older brother Sora just came and told me that she just landed her from uncle Seto's helicopter." Christina and Miyuki gasped. Miyuki suddenly jumped up, startling Jaden and letting go of his hand. "No way!" Christina said, happiness spreading across her face. "Can we.. Can we go see her?" Miyuki said a bit shyly. She looked to Jaden with a smile. "Jaden, Isabel is here! We should go meet her!" she said with excitement. Mikomi smiled. "She would be thrilled! Come on, my big brother knows where she's at!" Mikomi started leading them to her mom.

Meanwhile, Rin was starting to walk about to the girl's dorm. She opened the door to the foyer and saw a woman waiting on one of the small sofas, and she looked up to Rin. The woman smiled. "Hello Rin." Rin's eyes widened. "You.. You are back.. After all this time.." she said, surprised to see the woman as she walked towards her slowly. Isabel looked much older than the last time Rin saw her. Her hair was shoulder length, was wearing an older, updated version of her outfit she last wore, but her spirit was still there. She got up and hugged Rin. "I missed you very much," she said, her voice more mature. "What may have been just yesterday for you was years for me. But I never forgot you or the others." When she pulled away, Rin felt there was something different about Isabel. Nothing bad, but something was missing...

Rin looked very surprised and closed her eyes at the hug and smiled. "I missed you too. You did so much for me." she said, her voice soft and caring. She couldn't place what was different about Isabel but decided to push it aside. "How have you been since everything? You talk about years going by.. It feels like only a week or so." she said, taking a seat on one of the couches.

"I returned to my timeline, which was years in the past, in your point of view." Isabel smiled, holding Rin's face in your hand. "I'm so happy to see you like this. But I did come here on business." Rin blinked. "Oh, what kind of business?" she asked with curiosity, giving a tilt of her head. "To fulfill a promise I made to you," Isabel stepped aside, revealing Valon standing by a bookcase behind her.

"Hallo, Rin," Valon smiled. Rin stood up immediately, shocked behind belief. Tears welled up in her eyes as she covered her mouth. "V...Valon..." she said softly. Then rushed toward him, giving him a big hug. Valon hugged her tightly. "I missed you, Rin... I was scared for you when I couldn't find you... But Isabel told me where you were, after she found me, that is..." He kissed her forehead. "I'm so glad you're safe..." Rin was so happy to see Valon and to hear he had been looking for her. "I.. I'm sorry. I ran off after everything, scared because I thought you were gone, because I had hurt so many people. But then I came here, and everything changed. I met some wonderful people who accepted me, forgave me for everything." she said with a small smile resting her head on Valon's. Isabel smiled at the reunion and decided it would be best to wait outside.

Isabel closed the door to the dorm and as she started to walk forward, she saw her son, Sora, and her daughter, Mikomi, running towards her with a group she had met a long time ago. Isabel's smile grew. "Mom!" Mikomi called out. Both Mikomi and her brother hugged their mother, gave their welcomes and great to see you. Then they both stepped aside for Miyuki and Christina to greet their old friend. Miyuki and Christina both went wide eyed and with a gasp, smiled. "Isabel, you are ok!" Miyuki cheered as she ran to give Isabel a hug. Christina slowly walked up with a grin. "Long time no see friend. I see you must have married and had kids." The brunette teased. Isabel hugged Miyuki tightly. "Yes, sweetie, I am," she smiled. She then looked to Christina. "Happily married to my sweet Noah for a long time. And I see you've already met my son and daughter, Sora and Mikomi."

Mikomi was smiling wider than her mother. "This is so exciting! Uncle Yugi told us about that awesome adventure with the time travel and the monsters and all the friends she made on her journey-" she was hopping around and spinning at this point. "This is so exciting!" "Calm down sis," Sora said, holding her in place. Christina laughed. "That is wonderful. Oh, speaking of wonderful news, guess what Miyuki finally did..." She said in a singing kind if voice as she gave a poke to Miyuki who blushed. "I..I told Jaden how I felt, just like you said I should and he said.. he liked me back." She said quietly and with a smile. It was then Happy Lover appeared and floated around her. "And I got them to kiss!" It squeaked with joy and made Miyuki blush even more.

Isabel smiled. "I told you," she said with a wink. She looked up to where she believed Happy Lover was floating. "I wonder..." she pondered out loud. She reached her hand out and touched Happy lover, but sadly, she did not become visible. "I thought as much, but it's good to know I can still know when I'm around a spirit..." Miyuki and Christina froze. "You mean, your magic is gone?" Miyuki asked with wide eyes, Happy Lover looking concerned and floating itself into Miyuki's arms. Isabel was silent. "Yes... I did what I needed to do, but I was given a second chance at life, minus the powers... But it doesn't matter now," Isabel smiled, as she hugged her kids. "I'm still here, with everyone I love." She looked up to the group. "And I still remember everything. My memories are one my greatest treasures."

Christina and Miyuki were both shocked but happy that Isabel was happy and had remembered them, after all this time. "It is great to see you are doing well." said Christina as she gave a sigh, "To think it had been years for you when it was only yesterday for us. It's crazy to think about." She sweatdropped and scratched her head. Miyuki grinned. "So, what will you do now?" The younger girl asked. "Enjoy my days..." To the very end.


	9. Chapter 9: Epilogue

Further in the future, two young children walked with their grandmother from the damaged arena. The little girl was holding on to her grandmother tightly. "I-I was so scared, Grammie..." the little 6 year old managed through tears. "I wasn't!" her 8 year old brother proclaimed. "If that butterfly lady came to hurt us, I would duel her with my strong deck!" He punched his fist in the air, his duel disk slipped just a little bit on his thin arm. He quickly tried to readjust his duel disk to hide the mistake. "But that girl who jumped down to fight that butterfly lady was so cool!" The boy then went of reenacting some of the fight moves he saw, but failed to pay attention where he was going when he bumped into Kristin and James.

Kristen turned around along with James and she smiled at the two children. "Hello there." Kristen said with a grin and a wave, her goggles hanging playfully around her neck. James gave a small wave as well. The little boy looked up to them in awe. "You were the awesome duelist from the last duel!" he chimed excitedly. He grabbed their hands and pulled them over to his sister and grandmother. "Grammie was telling me and sissy that you two were very brave and great duelist! Grammie, look who's here!" He called excitably.

The grandmother laughed at her grandson's antics. "That's enough, sweet heart," she calmly said. "I'm so sorry about that, Kristen, James. He gets overly excited sometimes." Kristen and James got a little confused but smiled at the boy's excitement as he pulled them over to his grandmother. "Not a problem ma'am." Kristen chuckled, "I'm glad I have such young fans." James raised a brow at the two kids and grandma. "Wait, how do you know about us?" he asked. He figured maybe it was the tournaments but something seemed a bit odd about it all. The old woman smiled. "We met a long time ago, on today, actually." both her grandkids looked up to her in awe. "I wanted to come back and relive a good memory, of an impossible day." She smiled at the two duelist. "If I am remembering correctly, Kristin Atlas, you were thinking not too long ago that I was an impossibility."

Kristen's eyes went big. "Isabel... Is that you?" She asked, taking a few steps backward in shock. James expression was also in clear shock. "You.. remembered us all this time? This.. this is.." James stammered. "Crazy.." Kristen continued. Isabel laughed a little at their reactions. "I know it must be for you two, but my friend did tell you that we would remember that adventure. And I've been waiting a long time to see you two again..." Kristen grinned and gave her a hug. "We talk about our adventures together all the time. My brother still can't believe I met someone from the past. I.. I can't believe it has been that many years for you. For us it felt like yesterday. It's.. it's crazy, but after everything I had seen, well it isn't impossible that is for sure." She said with a laugh.

"Life has a funny way of working like that, sweetie," Isabel hugged back. She looked to both James and Kristin. "You two still have a big adventure ahead of you... But don't be afraid or dismayed. I know you two can handle it." She smiled. "I shall see you around, my friends. Come on, sweeties, time to go home." The kids waved goodbye to James and Kristin and walked off with their Grammie Isabel, an impossible old woman who never forgets. The two blushed as they watched her leave, both shocked by all this but happy as well. They looked to each other with a grin. "Shall we go? Aku is probably waiting for us at that pizza place." Kristen said with a chuckle. James grinned back. "Yeah.." he said and the two walked off towards their cycles, holding each other's hands.


End file.
